Mystery Western Historical Fiction

Barney Dwyer is a gentle giant who has yet to find a place in the world. Capturing two notorious outlaws has made a hero of him, so much so that rancher Robert Parmelee offers him a job on his ranch to put a stop to persistent rustling. Taking the job promises an income sufficient for Barney to marry his sweetheart. But this promise for the future falls into jeopardy when the outlaws escape, determined to kill Barney.

In August 1876, Jack Jones, a reporter for a Chicago newspaper, is assigned to write about the doings of Deadwood, Dakota Territory - a lawless gold camp in the Lakota's Black Hills which draws prospectors and many colorful characters. After the shocking murder of an acquaintance, Jones begins investigating an entire string of murders that begins with wild Bill Hickok and leads Jack down a treacherous trail that has him wondering if he won't be next.

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.

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.

In the lawless frontier town of Brownsville, Texas, a boy and his parents ride a carriage down a crowded street - when a kill-crazy band of kidnappers strike suddenly. Now, to rescue his family, veteran rancher Charley Sunday cobbles together a ragtag posse that starts with an outlaw and an Indian - and picks up recruits, weapons, and a lot of trouble all the way down into Mexico.

Their friendship started with a schoolyard tussle. Now the need for revenge is what binds Luke Croft and Red Connover together. When Luke taught himself how to fire a Colt, he never imagined he'd turn into a gunman. But when his stepfather's dodgy business dealings turn his life upside down, Luke asks Red to help him destroy the man who murdered his kin. The road to vengeance is long and hard, and the two friends who are barely out of boyhood will need all the help they can get if they want to catch a cold-blooded killer.

What is truth? For 19 years, Joshua Webb has been asking that question in the pages of his newspaper, The Paradise Ledger. He's been called a madman, a lunatic, and an anarchist, but now he has stumbled upon a story so huge that it could shake the United States to its very foundation. The source of the trouble is Boston Corbett, the man who shot John Wilkes Booth.

It is the winter of 1879, and Dodge city has lost its snap. Thirty-one-year-old Wyatt Earp, assistant city marshal, loads his wife and all they own into a wagon, and goes with two of his brothers and their women to Tombstone, Arizona, land of the silver mines. There Earp becomes deputy sheriff, meeting up with the likes of Doc Holliday, Clay Allison and Bat Masterson as well as finding the love of his life, showgirl Josie Marcus.

With outlaws wrecking havoc left and right, a cow town in Texas is on the brink of becoming a ghost town. That's when it's time to call in Chicago-based Pinkerton agent Ash Tallman and his partner Vivian Valentine. Going undercover as a handsome, charming drifter, Ash is always ready with his gun and popular with the ladies. And the lovely, vivacious Viv plays the role of a fervent evangelist, offering salvation with the promise of a sweeter reward to any sinner who can give her clues.

Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson are making their way through a West Texas canyon when they smell death. Finally, the two emerge onto the mesa, where they encounter the site of a massacre. A whole family of deer lies dead around a small pond, their skeletons bleached by the Texas sun. Someone has poisoned the water hole. Then a rider comes around the corner, rifle in hand, and gets the drop on Twister and Chuckaluck.

McCray is a bounty hunter who specializes in hunting Mystik criminals. Spenser Townshend is a Mystik conman who uses magic to commit crimes. Together, they stumble upon the mystery of Whisper Falls - a town that ceased to exist a dozen years ago - and a gang of outlaws straight out of hell. In a town where nearly everyone has their secrets and nothing is what it seems, McCray and Townshend must join forces and, along with the local sheriff, a bevy of beautiful saloon girls, and a skeptical frontier doctor, put down the supernatural threat.

Texas Ranger John Bonafide never thought he would get the chance to come face-to-face with the Japanese soldier who killed his son, but he was dead wrong. When the last drop of blood is spilled, who will be the hero, and who will be the villain?

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack is a predator lying in wait. He's undercover as an outlaw to infiltrate a pair of vicious border gangs and bring them down. This mission has already had its share of casualties, and if Burrack has his say, there will be more. A cloud of dust rises as four men ride toward the Twisted Hills. The only thing between them and certain death at the hands of the Apaches is Sam, who also wants those men dead.

The year is 1837. The American West is untamed, uncivilized, and largely unclaimed. U.S. President Andrew Jackson, in a race with the British and Russians, sends a wagon train of would-be settlers into the uncharted Oregon territory, led by his close friend, mountain man and veteran Sam Brentwood. Teaming up with trail hand Whip Holt, widow Claudia Humphries, and a colorful group of courageous pioneers, Brentwood sets off from New York, heading westward to Independence, Missouri.

Leigh Hawthorne, a widow and local farmer in Tucker Springs, receives an unusual letter from a man out west who wants to marry a woman with ranching expertise. Could this solve all of Leigh’s problems? Hoping to find a better life, Leigh embarks on a journey to Chance City, Oklahoma. Fired for breaking Pinkerton rules, former detective Cyrus Decker just wants to live a quiet life as a cattle rancher. The problem is that he knows nothing about ranching - and his bank account shows it.

In the heart of Shadow Gulch, Eli Stone, a blacksmith with a lawman's past, faces a crisis that strikes at the very foundation of what he believes. The discovery of silver has turned his once-peaceful home into a den of opportunists and decay. As Judge Harlan Beck's questionable justice system starts to show its true colors, Eli is drawn back into a life he thought he had left behind, compelled to defend the underdog against an ever-growing tide of injustice.

Drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels, and his own prodigious fund of empathy and imagination, Michael Ondaatje's visionary novel traces the legendary outlaw's passage across the blasted landscape of 1880 New Mexico and the collective unconscious of his country. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a virtuoso synthesis of storytelling, history, and myth by a writer who brings us back to our familiar legends with a renewed sense of wonder.

Penniless, homeless, and virtually lifeless, the vagrant “Doughface” Jack is about to discover that where medical marvels meet the mysteries of the human mind, amazing things happen. The Tramp acquires a capability beyond his imagination and without equal on Earth. Riding the rails, Jack runs afoul of a local sheriff and ends up with a crushed skull. He’s as good as dead until a savvy country doctor performs a bit of medical magic.

Seit ich die schöne Jamie Boston zum ersten Mal sah, war ich verrückt nach ihr. Aber die Frau spielte die Unnahbare. Männer duldete sie nur am Kartentisch um sich. Deshalb hatte ich an diesem Abend mit ihr gepokert - was mich fast ein Vermögen kostete. Allerdings hatte ich damit gerechnet. Beim Pokern konnte ich ihr nicht das Wasser reichen. Außerdem spielte die schöne Jamie falsch, und nicht jeder ließ sich ungestraft von ihr die Haut abziehen. Mit dem jungen Donovan würde sie jedenfalls Ärger kriegen.

Die Geschichte der Menschheit bestätigt immer wieder die Worte Vilfredo Paretos: "Solange die Sonne leuchtet über dem Unglück der Menschen, wird das Schaf vom Wolf gefressen werden." Das genau sind die Worte des großen Soziologen. Und wer kann sich darüber wundern, dass es schon immer Menschen gab, die diese Worte zwar nicht kannten, aber dennoch zur gleichen Erkenntnis kamen und danach lebten?