Western Fiction

Orphaned at fourteen, Hector “Heck” Martin heads west, determined to see the far country and make a man of himself. Along the way, he falls in love with bold and beautiful Hope Mullen. But Heck is too young and poor to marry, so he heads west again. During a three-year journey, Heck crosses thousands of miles, becomes a bareknuckle boxer, a mountain man, and an Indian fighter, and meets the likes of Kit Carson and Jim Bridger as he explores the gorgeous and deadly frontier.

Welcome to Ironhead Station, Indian Territory, where the train tracks end and the real action begins. The hell-on-wheels construction camp is the final destination for hard-drinking sinners, gamblers, and outlaws. And woe to the man who tries to clean it up. Morgan Clyde is a former New York City policeman and Union sharpshooter who lost everything in the Civil War. But he’s still got his guns and his guts. Some folks say he is meaner and tougher than the Devil himself. Which is why the owners of the MK&T Railroad hired Clyde for one hell of a job. 

In 1875, two young Sioux are lynched in Lockwood, Wyoming, by a makeshift posse for a crime they may or may not have committed. Ethan Ramsey knows he must act quickly to prevent a bloody retaliation from their Sioux tribe. Can he gain the trust of both the Sioux and the townspeople of Lockwood to allow enough time to unravel the mystery of the crime and ensure justice is fairly served?  

A cowboy returning to his hometown—and the best friend he left a dozen years before. This Christmas, can Graham and Laney build a family and find their happily-ever-after?

Sarah Prescott has never known a respectable life. Just a hardscrabble childhood and brothers who taught her to shoot first and ask questions later. Justin Wells left Boston in disgrace, heading out alone on the dusty trail to Texas. But when the once-respected clergyman encounters a feisty redhead in handcuffs with a dying US Marshal at her side, their journey takes a dramatic turn. His high-society expectations and Sarah's outlaw habits clash from the start. With a price on her head and recused orphaned baby, Justin and Sarah make the difficult journey toward Rocky Creek. 

"Stay the hell out of Fort Worth." Those were the last words uttered by a dying man who was the boomtown's most recent sheriff. Rail-thin and half starved, desperate cowpuncher Jess Casey ignores the travel advice. Instead, Jess not only enters Fort Worth, he becomes the new sheriff, inheriting the body-riddled little slice of heaven called Hell's Half Acre, the wide-open, deadliest piece of real estate on the American frontier.

The second novel in Joseph M. Marshall III’s acclaimed Lakota Western series begins in 1875, as Sitting Bull gathers thousands of Lakota to face the growing problem of white incursion. What follows is a sweeping tale of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, including the days and weeks leading up...

It started as a brother defending the honor of his only sister, but it led to a bloody duel and a young man of a prominent family lying dead in the dirt.... Gabriel Stonecroft, along with his lifelong friend Ezra, the son of the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal church, at his side, begins the journey to the far wilderness of the West. One man from prominent social standing, the other with a life of practical experience, are soon joined in life-building adventures.  

When Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West, hoping to leave his troubles behind by joining the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for the young son of a wealthy Mexican landowner who was kidnapped by wild Apaches. But the expedition's goal becomes compromised when they encounter a wild Apache girl in a Mexican jail cell, victim of a Mexican massacre of her tribe that has left her orphaned and unwilling to eat or speak.

Flint Moran was fourteen years old when the Civil War ended. He was fifteen when his family bought a plot of land near Tinhorn, Texas. He was barely nineteen when he caught a pair of rustlers stealing cattle—and singlehandedly brought them to justice. How did a teenaged boy track down and capture two hardcase thieves without any help? That's what Tinhorn sheriff Buck Jackson wants to know. He can't help but be impressed by Flint's sharp eye and natural talent with a Henry rifle. So he offers to deputize the boy—tin badge, Colt Frontier Six-Shooter, and all—and Flint happily accepts. 

In the first in this trio of Western stories by Louis L'Amour - "Black Rock" - Jim Gatlin, a Texas trail driver, arrives in the town of Tucker where he finds himself quickly drawn into the middle of an all-out battle for the XY Ranch when, due to a case of mistaken identity, he kills the segundo of Wing Cary's Flying C Ranch. Gatlin is a dead-ringer for Jim Walker, who, like Cary, wants control of the XY. Gatlin is thrown into a situation in which all he can do but fight for his life. 

Welcome to Travers Corners, a dusty Montana town, where nothing much has happened since Herbert Hoover stopped for gas. Travers Corners, like most small towns, has no newspaper, no radio station; but here, large trout - no better than large trout, fictitious trout - await the angler. And apart from spreading gossip outside the McCraken’s General Store, the residents of Travers Corners love nothing more than fly fishing. Scott Waldie’s delightful cast of characters breathes life into this tiny, out-of-the-way town.

When an old military buddy turns up at the ranch he shares with two friends, Noah Harding never imagines the friend will skip out overnight and leave his baby boy behind. Noah will have some choice parenting advice to offer when the baby's mother turns up, but until then, he'll do his best to take care of the little one. Yet when a relieved Jen finally tracks down her son, Noah realizes the story is more complicated than he thought. And soon, so are his feelings for Jen . . .

There will never be another Western writer like Louis L’Amour. A legendary author and indisputably the greatest storyteller in his genre of all time, L’Amour captivated millions of readers and has sold well over three hundred million copies of his works, which includes nearly ninety novels and countless short stories. Mistakes Can Kill You highlights an essential selection featuring nine of L’Amour’s earlier short stories, sometimes written under the pen name Jim Mayo, that exemplify the rugged morality of the best Western writing.

Barnes, the supervisor of a Hot Shot wildfire suppression crew, is haunted by the season past, when many members of his dedicated, young team were killed in a Colorado forest fire that went all wrong, scorching the Hot Shots as they fled, some as they struggled into their fire shelters. He wakes each morning in the presence of their ghosts as they proceed across his bedroom or assemble at his kitchen table, their eyes asking questions that he cannot answer.

If anyone can smell an investment opportunity, it's railroad men and big city bankers. They're not the kind of folks that Sheriff Mackey is used to dealing with. But greed is greed, and if anyone knows how money can drive men to murder, it's the sheriff of a boomtown like Dover Station. But when Mackey is forced to gun down a pair of saloon rats, it brings a powderkeg of trouble - with a quick-burning fuse of vengeance named Alexander Duramont. This bloodthirsty psychopath wants to kill the sheriff for killing his buddies.

Justice is a drifter with no fear and no memory, trailed by a violent past. Nora is a beautiful widow bravely raising her young son on an isolated New Mexican ranch. When a ruthless cattle baron pushes longhorns into the valley, Justice vows to protect Nora and her boy. But how can he succeed against thirty hired guns… including the four outlaws who left him for dead?

Rock Bannon, wounded in an Indian attack, is rescued by a wagon train heading to Oregon. He has fully recovered when the train pulls into a fort to stock up on supplies. It is there that the leaders of the train meet Morton Harper, a smooth-talking man who persuades them to take an easier trail that will allow them to escape an attack by Indians. Bannon knows that there will be no escape from attack on that route and that it will lead the train directly onto Hardy Bishop's vast ranching domain.

A collection of stories capturing what it means to be a cowboy.

My dad and I have been estranged for years, but as his only living relative, it's no surprise I inherit his massive cattle ranch when he dies. Something that is a surprise? The stipulation in his will that requires me to live on the ranch and actively manage it for a year before I can access my...