Mystery Western Historical Fiction

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.

Shady Rest, Texas, has the dubious reputation for being the deadliest town in America. Getting yourself killed is as easy as blinking and twice as quick. Sure enough, Matt Jensen hasn't swallowed his whisky before the town's marshal is gunned down.

Territorial marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch figured things had finally settled down in Appaloosa when Boston Bill Black's murder charge was dropped. But all that changed when Augustus Noble Driggs was transferred to a stateside penitentiary just across the border from Mexico. Square-jawed, handsome, and built like a muscled thoroughbred stallion, Driggs manages to intimidate everyone inside the prison walls, including the upstart young warden.

A rollicking novel about Nat Love, an African-American cowboy with a famous nickname: Deadwood Dick. Young Willie is on the run, having fled his small Texas farm when an infamous local landowner murdered his father. A man named Loving takes him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading, and gardening. When Loving dies, Willie re-christens himself Nat Love, in tribute to his mentor, and heads west.

Ten years after the events of Riders of the Purple Sage, John Shefford, a disillusioned preacher from Illinois travels to Arizona and takes refuge in a village controlled by polygamist Mormons hiding from the federal government.

There'd been several killings in Melville. Unusual killings, no witnesses, no clues, and no suspects. Sheriff Jim Bonner was having a time trying to narrow his search down. He had no idea where to look, or what he might be looking for. The murder was so gruesome, so unexpected, neither him nor his deputy, Smitty Younger, knew where to start looking. Whoever was doing this to his peaceful town was clever and covered his tracks. So Jim set about setting a trap for the villain.

Smoke Jensen and his adopted son Matt are cooling their heels in Colorado when they are called to the Dakotas. Preacher, the legendary mountain man, is in the midst of a vicious struggle. Someone has kidnapped a proud Indian chief’s daughter and grandchild. When the kidnapping turns to murder, and Preacher vanishes after clashing with a ruthless Union colonel turned railroad king, Matt sets out to infiltrate the Colonel's gang of killers.

With his epic novels of the Jensen family, William W. Johnstone has captured the pioneer spirit of America. Now he reveals the untold story of Smoke Jensen's long-lost brother Luke, thought to have been killed in the fiercest war in our nation's history. Smoke's Brother Luke: The Jensen Legend Continues...

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.

Winsor Glanvil pays court to Louise Carney, heiress to a fortune, and she agrees to marry him. The marriage is opposed by big Jack Rutledge, a jealous rival and formidable foe, so Glanvil and Louise plan to be married in a sequestered valley by a local clergyman. Rutledge and his supporters, learning of the plan, arrive in the valley ahead of the two and seize Glanvil. Glanvil is beaten mercilessly and Rutledge disfigures him, destroying one side of his face with the cutting edge of a spur. Rutledge then rejoins his gang in the clergyman’s house.

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.

Victor Frank is no ordinary killer. For one, he kills women with his bare hands. When he kills John T.'s mother and tells him he's "better off without her," John T. swears he'll track him down someday and kill him. Wesley Collins is a Texas Ranger, who's already had a run-in with Victor in his earlier days. He's bound to find him once the Rangers retire him before he does any more damage. Rascal Mills' wife was killed by Victor. He's got three kids left without a mother.

In "Master and Man," Bobbie is a black man who can outride, outfight, and outshoot any white man in the mountain desert. His unwavering moral code serves as a model for his often cruel and dissolute white master.

Chaos erupts in Silver Mesa when a group of outlaws decides to rob the town's only bank. The seemingly ordinary crime captures Zebadiah Clemens' full attention thanks to the lead bank robber abducting the young daughter of the stagecoach manager. But unlike the sheriff, his authority doesn't stop at the edge of town. In his pursuit, Zeb discovers a small ranching community with a rather unique problem: A dead man seems to be killing people. Zeb's not about to let the crazy supernatural stuff get in the way of finding the missing girl, but no situation is ever as simple as it seems....

Traveling with his wife and infant daughter, Titus Bass heads north into Crow territory. But what should have been a joyous reunion with his wife’s people turns to tragedy when Bass’s family is kidnapped by the warring Blackfoot. A deadly outbreak of smallpox, brought west by the white man, threatens both Indian nations with annihilation. And another kind of epidemic—this one of greed—brought by two powerful, profit-hungry trading outfits will determine the fate not only of free trappers like Titus Bass—but also the destiny of the entire nation.

1942 - Granbury, Texas. A 95-year-old man walks into a recruiting office with the crazy idea to enlist - and an even crazier story. He claims to be the one and only Jesse James, the infamous bank robber allegedly shot by Robert Ford 60 years earlier. Using another man’s corpse to collect the reward, Ford allowed James to slip away and start a new life. Changing his name to Dalton, Jesse worked as a cattle broker in Fort Worth and fathered a pair of twins named Bill and Frank.

When Santa Claus enters a Texas bank just before Christmas in 1927, no one expects him to pull a gun. The fake white beard hides his identity from his neighbors while he and three others take everything. But their easy heist goes sideways fast when armed lawmen and citizens assemble to claim a new reward for dead bank robbers. Taking hostages, the gang forces a path through a frenzied and bloody shootout, setting the whole Lone Star state on their trail. One bandit dies in the getaway.

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.

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.

Colorado, July 1878. The nationally famous solar eclipse is almost upon the country, and a peak overlooking the fledgling town of Elkhorn is one of the centers of attention. In the midst of boisterous and chaotic frontier pre-celebrations, Caleb Marlowe - reluctantly deputized for the coming event - learns that local power broker Judge Horace Patterson is being targeted for assassination by agents of a financial magnate.