Mystery Western Historical Fiction

Jake Logan is a drifting free-wheeling cowboy who is just passing through town. He is recruited by a damsel in distress to help discover what happened to her missing uncle and his ranch. A powerful enemy tries to stop the investigation by getting rid of anyone that stands in the way. After reading them from the good book, Jake must make good on his promise, but first he must stay alive!

What happens when a Korean War vet recovering from serious injuries wins a ghost town in a contest, meets a hard-riding, gun-toting cowgirl, and is threatened by three dangerous people all within a few days? Answer: cock-eyed characters, pixilated dialogue, zany romance, and heart-stopping suspense. Thus begins one of Clarence Budington Kelland's finest and rarest novels, previously only published as a seven-part serial in the legendary and best-selling magazine of its era, The Saturday Evening Post.

In 1875, the Devil paid a visit to the town of Crooked Creek, Colorado.The townsfolk didn't think much of his visit then. Now, 10 years later, he's back. And he's got one hell of an agenda.

Adelaide Willowby is having a bad day. It’s a week before Christmas, and she has just kicked out the love of her life. Her sister and her daughter are barely speaking to her, one of her best girls is getting married, and ownership of the Wylder County Social Club is in jeopardy. Now she has landed in jail—for murder.

The Man Who Moiled for Gold draws its title from the Robert W. Service poem: "The Cremation of Sam McGee". The poem tells of suffering, loneliness, frustration, and ultimately death. Charley Martin experienced all of these emotions along with love and success while becoming the man who moiled for gold. Charley Martin, in 1912, is found mining the hard rock of Butte, Montana. Years of breathing the fine quartz dust in the pits have given Charley silicosis. Discovery of this incurable condition, by the mine super, brought an abrupt change to the 69-year old miner's life.

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.

Spanning the years of the first great settlement of the west, The Removes tells the intertwining stories of 15-year-old Anne Cummins, frontierswoman Libbie Custer, and Libbie’s husband, the Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer. When Anne survives a surprise attack on her family’s homestead, she is thrust into a difficult life she never anticipated - living among the Cheyenne as both a captive and, eventually, a member of the tribe. Libbie, too, is thrown into a brutal, unexpected life when she marries Custer.

If Lauralee had her way, all the saloons in the great Northwest would be closed down. Her crusade was successful - except for the prosperous saloon that McCallum was determined to save from her indignation. But their conflict could not quell their growing attraction for each other. Slowly the proud, powerful man melted Lauralee's defiant heart...yet as she surrendered to a rich and wild desire, her joy was shadowed by the haunting mystery of McCallum's brother's death...a mystery whose shocking outcome could forever destroy their love!

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.

After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, 16-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the 20th century. Caleb’s moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill.

Calvin Sidey - steely, hardened, with his own personal code - is one of the last cowboys. It's the 1960s, and he's living off the grid in a trailer on the prairie when his adult son, Bill, seeks his help. A mostly absentee father and grandfather, Calvin nevertheless agrees to stay with his grandchildren for a week. He decamps for his son's house in the small town where he once was a mythic figure, and soon enough problems arise: A boy's attentions to 17-year-old Ann are increasingly aggressive, and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will.

Outlaw Wes Cavanaugh knows that crime doesn't always pay - at least not much. That's why he and his partner, Mose, are willing to pay Jimmy Stock for information on a job that's guaranteed to pay off big. Jimmy's made a career of selling tips to bandits, but the job he sells Wes - a payroll train about to leave Omaha - requires more than information.

The chance discovery of a virtual mountain of copper brings incredible wealth and power to two men: Irish immigrant and miner, Marcus Daly, and merchant, banker, and investor, William Andrews Clark. The two men become bitter rivals, employing armies of workers from every corner of the world as they battle head-to-head for control of "The Richest Hill on Earth." And then, in the spring of that year, the stakes increase dramatically. News of an assassin stalking Daly reaches the Territorial Capitol...

Born in Brooklyn, Sammy Gregg is small in stature and naive to the ways of the world, yet headstrong and resolute to save enough money to marry Susie Mitchell. Gregg calculates that he needs $15‚000 and figures he can earn enough in six months out west. Although he is a small man who knows nothing of fighting‚ guns‚ or horses‚ he takes his $5‚000 in savings and heads west‚ arriving in Munson‚ a tough, lawless town.

Matt Wheeler was a legend in the West. His fast gun and dedication to justice made him a sought-after lawman for hire, but all of that promise vanished one sunny day when his wife was shot down in cold blood by a heartless bank robber. The thirst for vengeance sent Wheeler on a quest to find the killer. For taking the law into his own hands, the former lawman was convicted and sent to prison. Seven and a half years have passed, and Wheeler has completed his sentence. One question remains: Will he ride for vengeance or for justice?

Tower is sent to the Wyoming boomtown of Big River, where a young preacher has been viciously murdered, his crucified body left in a small valley known as Killer’s Draw. When Tower and Bird arrive in town, it quickly becomes obvious that no one wants to talk about the preacher - not about his life or his death. Tower is disturbed by the townspeople’s silence, and Bird’s no help - she disappeared into the nearest saloon as soon as they got off the train.

Nevada, 1872. Out of the merciless 40-mile desert, a stranger appears in the town of Golgotha, home to the blessed and the damned. He carries with him an innocent victim of a horrible massacre and a dire warning for Sheriff Jon Highfather. The conflict between the Indian nations and Mormon settlers has been brewing for years, and now the spirits of the fallen Indian dead have begun to rise to join in the fight.

The Texas Panhandle of the late 1880s is the last great open range of American legend. Into that wild unknown country ride two young cowboys. Nate Reynolds is the scion of a well-to-do family who lit out for the Panhandle in search of adventure - and gold. Billy Champion is a devil-may-care ne'er-do-well with a stubborn streak and an eye for the ladies. Together they aim to rid this violent territory full of rustlers, horse thieves, and the rest of the devils who slaughter innocents with no remorse.

John Henry Cole, working as a deputy U.S. marshal out of Judge Isaac Parker's court in Arkansas, was on assignment in the Indian Nations, in pursuit of a group of white renegades who were in hiding there - above all a particularly vicious renegade named Caddo Pierce. He had a wagon of captive renegades when he was shot and seriously injured. He managed to come out of the Nations with his prisoners, but decided that he had enough of that job and so resigned.

Smart and sassy bookkeeper China Bohannon is a modern 1890s career woman who'd rather sleuth than type. China is in charge of the Doyle & Howe Detective Agency office on the day a 14-year-old girl shows up seeking the detectives' help in a case of what she's calling murder.