Western Thriller

Texas rancher and lawman John Cronin knows what it means to be tough. A decorated Vietnam vet with connections to law enforcement agencies all around the world, he’s thwarted smugglers and drug plots across the globe with more than a few narrow escapes. Whether it’s a sniper competition or teaching the feds a thing or two about police work, Cronin doesn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Of course, this slow-talking lawman’s biggest challenge yet might be when his granddaughter Jesse falls in love with a Marine.

In Montana's Gravelly Range, paw prints and a single whisker discovered at a scene of horrific violence suggest a woman has been attacked and carried away by a mountain lion. Sheriff Martha Ettinger employs her fiancé, sometimes-detective Sean Stranahan, to put a name to the gnawed bones comprising all that is left of the body. The woman's is the first of several deaths that Sean suspects are not as easily explained as they appear.

Elizabeth Margaret “E.M.” Danniher finds house hunting in Cottonwood County, Wyoming difficult, but deadly? That she never expected. In television, a cold open rolls before the credits, pitching the viewer into the news story. That’s how Elizabeth and her cohorts feel after she finds a body in a house for sale. A victim with a hidden history, few suspects, and the sheriff’s department not happy having Elizabeth - and amateur sleuth thorn in their sides - as the closest thing they have to a witness. Mike, Diana, Tom and the rest jump in to dig in.

In a secessionist rural state that has cut itself off completely from urban centres, where living is hardscrabble and poor but “free”, Brooke Holland runs a farm with her husband and two daughters. Their existence at the fringes of modern society is tenuous - they make barely enough from each harvest to keep going - yet Brooke cherishes the loving, peaceful life they have carved out for themselves. She has even begun to believe she is free from the violent history she has kept a secret from her family.

When Zekial Broome stops a sadistic slave chaser, Grissum McCord, from whipping his captive, he and the girl have no choice but to flee west into the untamed lands of the wild frontier. If they can make it to the Green River country, no one will ever find them. What they don't count on is McCord. With a 500-dollar bounty at stake and revenge in his heart, he'll follow them to hell and back, for as long as it takes. He's murdered before, but the revenge he plans for the buckskin-clad Broome would make a strong man quail.

Ever since their father's untimely death five years before, Wyatt Smith and his inseparably close twin sister, Lucy, have scraped by alone on their family's isolated ranch in Box Elder County, Utah. That is until one morning when, just after spotting one of their steers lying dead in the field, Wyatt is hit in the arm by a hail of gunfire that takes four more cattle with it. The shooter: a fever-eyed, fearsome girl-child with a TEC-9 in her left hand and a worn shotgun in her right.

When the sheriff is murdered, his son is asked to take his place. Bobby Trent is a semi-retired rodeo cowboy and the son of a highly respected law officer. When his father, the sheriff, is murdered, Trent is asked to fulfill the remaining months of his term in office. Sheriff Bobby Trent; nobody would have guessed it, but it should be an easy enough task; drink a little coffee, maybe lead a parade. Easy work until he is healthy enough to return to the circuit.

Harney County, Oregon, 1968: Nick Drake has a chest full of medals and enough demons to fill a duffel bag. He's been trained to kill but was never retrained to rejoin society. Drake flees to the lonesome high desert in search of redemption and takes a job patrolling wildlife refuges where the only conflicts are keeping out stray cows and ticketing poachers. But then he stumbles across a girl's body ritually placed in a gully. Her murder is only the beginning, and Drake must face humanity's heart of darkness once again if he's to stop a killer from turning even more gullies into graves.

“Bad Bobby” Trent, star high school athlete, college scholarship holder, pro-rodeo circuit rider, lived an unencumbered life. He was a man, who, by his own definition, limited his concentration to no more than eight seconds at a time - the time required to ride a bull or saddlebronc and win. He’s tough, independent, shallow, and always looking for a good time. Then his father is murdered. Sheriff Robert Trent, was the longtime chief law enforcement officer of Lodge Pole County Montana. He was stern, fair, honest, and dependable.

The Civil War may be over, but in this thrilling historical novel, the battle for the West is only just beginning. Wolves of Eden sets four men on a deadly collision course in a haunting narrative that explores the cruelty of warfare and the resilience of the human spirit.

Clinching is the technique used to bend a driven horseshoe nail to hold the shoe to a hoof. Rainy Dale is The Clincher, a 20-something high school-dropout turned farrier (horseshoer) who is haunted by a secret she carries. Estranged from her California D-list actress momma and her ranch hand Texas daddy, she tracked down her childhood horse in small-town Oregon - a land full of cowboys and their horses - then stayed to build a life with her tools, steel, and forge. She’s sleeping in a garage and trying not to fall for her landlord, the hapless and hopeful chef, Guy.

Mississippi charmer Abner Mason is a professional gambler and a regular on the Delta Jack, a luxurious riverboat. But luck hasn't exactly been going Mason's way. After a disastrous loss at the tables, he owes an impossible debt to the most powerful man on the ship: mysterious, ruthless Cam Greeley. And Greeley's willing to do whatever it takes to get his fortune back - even threaten Mason's life. Now Mason has a single night to raise all the funds to pay off his debt by completing whatever ominous jobs Greeley has waiting for him. He just has to make it through alive....

The life of a cowboy suits Thalis Christie just fine. A puncher for the Crescent H in Texas, he loves what he does and is damn good at it too. He doesn't even mind being away from his family - he's got good friends to keep him from getting too homesick. That is, until his folks write, imploring him to hunt down his brother, Myles, who's been shot while prospecting in the Black Hills. Thalis sets out to do his family duty and find his little brother - still alive, he hopes.

Cowgirl Reba Cahill’s schedule is full. Save the family ranch. Take another road trip. Free her mom from a mental institute and give her the family heirloom, a gold-and-turquoise squash blossom necklace. Solve a murder and kidnapping. Plus, evade a vicious stalker. Can she also squeeze in romance?

Zane Grey's first western story, written in 1909, is based on a real character, Buffalo Jones. Grey's descriptive art was just beginning in this story. But he brings color and life to the area between the Grand Canyon and Utah. The story follows Grey, Jones, and a company of colorful characters on a "hunt" bent on capture rather than shooting.

When their wagon breaks down in the desert, Reverend Jon Keyes and his ailing wife, Lorna, find themselves at the mercy of blistering heat, punishing thirst, and circling buzzards. On the brink of death, they are rescued by Caleb Hobbs and his beguiling daughter, Deliverance, who take them to their home in San Melas. It's a strange little town, built to resemble the New England village they left behind.

A dirt poor mother and her son who's only possession - their property is desired by an evil man. His lust for wealth drives him to stop at nothing to obtain it - causing a grieving mother the fear of never seeing her only son again. A prison in the desert which has been closed for over a half century is mysteriously reopened, but for what purpose? Why was the boy taken from his mother and the girl he loves - will he ever see them again? Why does Jack McCormack covet John W's worthless property so aggressively?

Laura Elliston and William Kindle are on the run - from the army and from every miscreant in the West eager to claim the $500 bounty for Laura's capture as their own. But the danger isn't just from those pursuing them. Laura and Kindle both have demons of their own and pasts that won't stay dead. Exhausted, scared, scarred, and surrounded by enemies, neither realizes the greatest danger is yet to come.

Chip Chippendale met Ransom Barnes after the War Between the States, when the two cowboys drove a herd up from Texas together. But when Chip first laid eyes on Wyoming, he knew he was home, and the two friends split off on different trails. Each man went on to own his own ranch, but when Ransom's home is attacked and burned by a marauding band of Cheyenne warriors, he is faced with ruin - and makes matters worse by gunning down the Cheyenne leader's son.

There is an authenticity in John Duncklee's voice that you don't find in other writers of the American West today. His characters are as lively as a wild mustang stallion, and as unpredictable as the weather. If you love a good story, treat yourself to John Duncklee.