Short Westerns

Sherlock Holmes-worshiping cowboys Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer have starred in five Holmes on the Range novels, rustling up award nominations and fans aplenty as they cracked mysteries using the methods of their English hero. How did these Old West drifters first discover Holmes, though? What were they doing before their novel adventures began? And how did their early, awkward stabs at "deducifying" turn out? These seven short stories provide the answers.

Pediatrician Parker Reese likes to play the field and usually has women at his beck and call. Until caring for a newborn in crisis sets him on a collision course with beautiful but standoffish nurse Clare Connelly. He's willing to wager he can seduce her despite herself. But as they bond over healing the baby, the question becomes: Who's seducing whom? Soon all bets are off, but can Clare trust her heart to this player, or is it just a game?

When her husband dies, she has a choice to make: Go home, and face the family who made her stay with the beast, or head to Belle Fourche to the only friend she has left. Conrad Oleson can't read, and it's shamed him for longer than he can remember. When another teacher shows up on his front step, he's sure his brother is meddling, again. But when Izzy reveals her painful past, he can't stay away. And if learning to read brings him closer to her, he'll do about anything for her including teaching her how to love.

Vienne is trying desperately to support herself and her six-month-old baby when she is threatened with having baby Cooper taken away. A promising mail order bride advertisement causes her to flee to Oregon.

It's 1867. Firestone, Montana, is the setting for a long-awaited wedding. After their harrowing experience in the wilds of the Western Frontier, Ginny Douglas and Manly Forsythe finally come to the church to join their lives together forever. In the midst of their joy and excitement, unforeseen circumstances conspire to foil their plans. A man with Ginny in his sights resurfaces and threatens everything she hoped to gain by marrying Manly.

Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned....Trey Arking was on his way to becoming TBC Pro-Rider of the Year until a bull named Brickhouse derailed his life, paralyzing him. Sara Corday wore Trey’s engagement ring and dreamed of their life together. Her dreams altered when his life changed. Trey is unable to see the wonderful future of his dreams from a wheelchair, but Sara is determined to help him see hers. Can these two stubborn people find a way to live again?

Collected here are 10 Western short stories by Richard S. Wheeler, the award-winning author who makes storytelling look easy. In "Mugs Birdsong's Crime Academy", celebrated criminal Mugs Birdsong decides to found an academy that will instruct lawmen on the ways and means of lawlessness. "The Last Days of Dominic Prince" is the tragic tale of a cattle baron and his final conflict with the forces of political correctness. "Dead Weight" introduces us to a coffin maker who constructs a work of art.

What is a lineshack? It's a small cabin used by ranch hands, a place of refuge during storms. Sometimes the only place within miles, a place that can mean the difference between life and death, especially when a winter storm is about to bare down on you. This winter is no different...except that this time there's three murderous brothers, the sheriff, and a group lost skiers who may just need the same lonely building. Then from out of no where surfaces another, a man out of time, out of place.... Who will survive this New Years Eve.

Red Butte Showdown: Selected Unabridged Stories from May There Be a Road includes four unforgettable adventures - "Red Butte Showdown", "Friend of a Hero", "Wings Over Brazil", and "The Ghost Fighter" - all previously uncollected stories, now offered for the first time together.

Johnston McCulley, the author responsible for Zorro, also created the mysterious avenger known as The Whirlwind. A young man leaves behind a life of wealth and privilege in Spain and journeys to California. He builds a new life with a new name, Pedro Garzos. As he settles into his new home, the man known as Pedro discovers tyrants, bandits, and other dangers that threaten the weak and powerless!

Hannah Keane is tired of being on the road. She's eager to move home and live a quiet life, writing music and teaching at the local kids' center. For David Quinn who is in no hurry to find love, she is the very last person on his list. Hannah even seemed to look down her nose at him the last time she saw him, like she did back when they were in high school. But, David starts to worry that something else is going on - that Hannah is running from something and won't be able to stay in Quinn Valley after all.

Maggie Quinn loves her role as bartender and co-owner of Quinn’s. Calling Charlie Keane to place her weekly order is something she looks forward to. It’s no secret to her friends and family that Maggie has a crush on Charlie’s voice. She’s eager to meet him in person, but Charlie keeps rescheduling their business lunch - and he may have waited too long for his own good.

God, this man is perfect. He looks like a god. Working for him is going to be difficult. Well, the work part will be easy. I love working on a ranch, and I know I can make a difference here. But I don’t think I can keep from desiring him. Will he desire me?

The lure of the American West is in the spirit of adventure, in the majestic expanse of unconquered wilderness and in rugged individuals on a quest for identity and sometimes for survival. Owen Wister's unsmiling Virginian... Dorothy M. Johnson's, "A Man Called Horse": These are a few of the colorful, even legendary characters who populate The American West in Fiction, a collection of stories edited by Jon Tuska.

First published in 1936, this new Raging Bull Edition contains the original text as well as background articles including "Robert E. Howard - A Prolific Storyteller Dies Young", "Robert E. Howard - Bibliography", "Weird West - a Creative Combination of Genres"....

A flirty game of sexual truth or dare between best man Wynton Grant and maid of honor Melissa Lockhart during their BFFs' wedding reception results in a steamy hookup. But their plans for a one and done change when a family crisis leaves Wyn shorthanded at the Grant Ranch. Experienced horsewoman Mel volunteers to help out and gets way more than she bargained for living under the same roof as the sexy rancher. Playing house has never appealed to Wyn...until now.

From Spur Award-winning novelist Wayne D. Overholser comes this collection of Western short stories. This collection includes "The Woman from Cougar Creek", "The Price of Pride", "The Devil and Old Man Gillis", "Shooting for a Fall", "It's Hell to Be a Hero", "The Tongue-Tied Cowboy", "From Hell to Leadville", "The Deputy with a Past", "Judge Peterson's Colt Law", "The Breaking of Sam McKay", "Fugitive from the Boothill Brigade", and "The Man Ten Feet Tall".

This collection contains the four Christian Western Romance audiobooks, including Mail Order Bride: Jasmine’s Lonely Cowboy, an emotional story about a lonely man with children who sends away for a mail order bride, and in return, gets so much more than he expected. Mail Order Bride: Sent by God to the California Cowboy is about a young woman in New York City who has fallen onto hard times after being released from the orphanage she’d been in for a majority of her life.

Wyoming 1880. Childhood sweethearts Rose McKinley and Will Hyde have always been destined to marry, and with their parents just as keen on the match, there is nothing to stop them. Except perhaps Cora, Rose’s younger sister. Lovesick and hung up on Will, she is sick of the happy couple. So when the handsome Mr. Galloway comes to town and turns Rose’s head, Cora sees an opportunity to get what she wants: Will.

Bret Harte was an American short-story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. We offer now some samples of his diversity in a collection of his short stories: “The Outcasts of Poker Flats”, “Tennessee’s Partner”, “The Idyl of Red Gulch”, “Brown of Calaveras”, “Muck-A-Muck”, “The Ninety-Nine Guardsmen”, “Mr. Midshipman Breezy”, “The Legend of Monte Del Diablo”, and more.