Showing results by author "Loren Estleman" in All Categories

National Book Award nominee and five-time Spur Award-winner Loren D. Estleman is widely considered one of America's finest Western authors. In this riotous and action-packed tale of Old West high jinks, a band of thieves posing as a traveling theater troupe runs afoul of a clever Pinkerton agent.

Locked in a deadly feud, cowboys Randy Locke and Frank Farmer have spent decades attempting to annihilate each other any time they are within shooting distance. So far, the men are even. One of Frank's bullets has given Randy a permanent limp. Vain Frank wears a prosthetic ear, his own lost to Randy's assault. If either of them remembers the original reason for the feud, it seems moot now.

An authority on the American West, award winner Loren D. Estleman has been called the most critically acclaimed author of his generation. In Journey of the Dead, Spanish alchemist Franciso de la Zaragoza—more than a hundred years old and known as a wise man and healer—and Sheriff Pat Garrett, the man who killed Billy the Kid, meet. The men share their stories, evoking the wonder of the Old West as they wrestle with possible answers to their deepest questions.

Few writers recount tales of the old West as deftly as Pulitzer Prize-nominee and two-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award Loren D. Estleman. Now, some of Estleman's finest work comes to life in this collection of vivid and richly detailed Western short stories.

Included are "The Pilgrim", a colorfully detailed historical tale of one Easterner's experience in the untamed wilds of the West, and "Hell on the Draw", an unsettling combination of frontier living and the supernatural.

A Crow Indian, two Mexican bandits, a libidinous preacher, and a Pinkerton agent join St. John’s posse to bring in an imaginative con artist who has done his best to scam the entire breadth of the Old West. St. John and his crew are at their boisterous best on this manhunt, and they're riding toward the wildest showdown the West has ever seen....

Evil Grows & Other Thrilling Tales collects nine offbeat tales of murder written by best-selling author Loren D. Estleman.

The Reverend Thomas Aquinas Sunsmith is halfway through his sermon when killers open fire. He is preaching against the evils of gambling, which a cartel of mobsters is trying to legalize in Detroit. The hail of gunfire misses the reverend, but a choir member is cut down—the first victim in the battle for the soul of the Motor City. The Detroit mob has erupted into civil war, and professional killer Peter Macklin is caught in the middle. A former mob employee, he has since tried to stay away from the savagery of organized crime, but now they're offering him a job too tempting to refuse.

For years, Donna ignored the guns in her husband's safe, his long hours, and all the cash he couldn't possibly have made as an "efficiency expert." But finally she was forced to admit that Peter Macklin is a killer for hire. Donna wants a divorce, and she wants to take her husband for all he's worth. But she won't get a penny if he's dead.

Johns Davis has just left the Alamo when he feels the garrote wrap around his neck. The bookie slams his foot on the gas, sending the car into oncoming traffic. It bounces off a van, hops the curb, and crashes into a hotel, knocking Davis unconscious and breaking the neck of his would-be assassin. Davis can breathe again, but just for a moment. When the mob wants you dead, they'll always send another killer.

1946. Fresh from the War in Europe, hack writer Jacob Heppleman discovers a changed world back home. The pulp magazines he used to write for are dying, replaced by a revolutionary new publishing racket: paperback novels, offering cheap excitement for the common man and woman. Although scorned by the critics, the tawdry drugstore novels sell like hotcakes—or so Jacob is assured by the enterprising head of Blue Devil Books, a pioneer in paperback publishing, known for its two-fisted heroes and underclad cover girls.

Feast on this delectable collection of "whodunits" from some of the mystery world's most diabolical chefs.