Western Crime Fiction

Jason Crow, double amputee and Vietnam War vet, has good reason to dislike the retired officer who bad-mouthed Jason's father and his African American business partner. But when Bartholomew calls late one night with a mysterious request that Jason come by his house, then turns up dead, Jason has to set his feelings aside. Clyde Burker, his old police nemesis and now head of the homicide division, doesn't want Jason meddling in yet another murder investigation, but Jason won't stay on the sidelines when Burker points a finger at Jason's own loved ones.

Nothing much happens in Peaceful Valley, Montana. And that's just how Sheriff Lucas Monk likes it. Aside from the occasional drunken brawl or minor disturbance out on the reservation, he hasn't had to resort to his fists or sidearm in years. That is, until mid-October, 1914, when the theft of a wooden cigar store Indian sets off a crime wave like nothing Lucas has ever seen. Teenager Charity Axthelm goes missing, Reba Purvis' housekeeper is poisoned with cyanide Reba is sure was meant for her, and Lucas' gut tells him that this is only the beginning.

There are rules in the West no matter what era you were born in, and it's up to lawman Ty Dawson to make sure they're followed in the valley he calls home. The people living on this unforgiving land keep to themselves and are wary of the modern world's encroachment into their quiet lives. So it's not without some suspicion that Dawson confronts a newcomer to the region: a record producer who has built a music studio in an isolated compound.

Reeling from the news dropped on his desk days earlier, Sheriff Elven Hallie is left questioning everyone and everything in his life. But when a former deputy is burned to death, Elven must push aside the turmoil in his personal life to catch the killer. As if that wasn’t enough, new faces from the Starcher clan enter his county with vengeance in their eyes for Corbin’s death. Paranoid, angry, and directionless, Elven must lean on those closest to him to bring a ruthless murderer to justice. But that’s easier said than done when it’s those closest to him who he trusts the least.

Movie star Mary Marvell consults with Hercule Poirot after receiving threatening letters that warn her to return her diamond, the famous "Western Star", to its rightful owner. But who does own the diamond, and is it even the genuine article?

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.

Ty Dawson, now the sheriff of Oregon's Meriwether County, is ready to put a trying year behind him, but he's afforded no such luck. In a country still coming to grips with the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Charles Manson, Ty's neck of the woods isn't safe from the turmoil-especially when a commune of young so-called hippies springs up out of nowhere . . .

The story begins in 1900 with the birth of the main character, Frank Hardin. Following his heroic military service with "Black Jack" Pershing in France during the Great War, Frank comes home and takes up the gun and badge, following in the footsteps of his father who was a career lawman. After the death of his father, Frank heads to a violent Texas oilfield boomtown in a misguided plan to come to the aid of his first girlfriend who is being victimized by a gang of violent criminals who are running the town.

Some people, it is said, have the "Midas touch", and all that they touch turns to gold. For Elena Ellery, however, the opposite is true. Everyone that Elena comes into contact with, fares badly. When gold is discovered on what was historically believed to be her father's property but was never registered to him and the placer miners who discovered the gold are shot dead by her family in an unfortunate misunderstanding, this unleashes a chain of events that affect the rest of her life.

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.

He is looking for a little bit of peace and trying to start a new life, but everywhere he goes, trouble seems to find him. This time, it comes in the form of a beautiful woman.

Texas Ranger Freddie Espinoza is center stage in pursuit of the drug-smuggling county sheriff. Freddie discovers an old friend—and DEA agent—has the sheriff in his crosshairs. Their former Army buddy, a Benedictine monk in his final days, is also on the case in a very unusual way.

It’s 1975, and cowboy Johnny Riles is a headcase. He’s depressed, he’s drunk, and he’s lonesome as hell. Left by his family to care for the ranch on his own, Johnny manages to keep the cattle alive while struggling to justify his own existence. Embittered by the success of his younger brother, Kitch, a professional basketball player, it is only thanks to a salt-dry sense of humor and a plentiful supply of whiskey that Johnny keeps himself aboveground.

When a man who isn’t who he claims to be befriends Patrick Flint and his son during a wilderness excursion with movers and shakers from across the globe, it puts the father-son duo dead in the bullseye of a murder target. To stop a gang of ruthless killers, the Flints must unriddle the mystery man’s identity before the killers put a stop to them all. Stag Party is the sixth book in the Patrick Flint series of thrilling mysteries, a spin-off from the What Doesn't Kill You saga.

It's been six weeks since Jack McBride's life went to hell: The resolution of his first case as chief sparked a county-wide drug war, his brother Eddie rode into town with a pocket full of cocaine and trouble on his mind, his estranged wife returned from her one-year sabbatical determined to win him back, and Ellie Martin ended their brief affair.

Woodson Fulk rides with Abigail Friedan's posse once again, this time to rescue a kidnapped young woman. They soon discover that their quarry has been taken to the town of Devil's Gate, which is inhabited entirely by outlaws of many different gangs, all engaged in a tenuous truce to keep the peace.

After two tours as a sniper in Iraq, Tommy Smith has returned to his former life as a cowboy and wilderness guide in California’s Sierra Nevada, hoping to reclaim the simplicity of his youth and heal the wounds the world can’t see. When, high on a mountain pass, he and his partner find the wrecked plane of a billionaire adventurer who disappeared months earlier, a seemingly innocent act triggers a breathtaking cycle of violence that threatens Tommy’s world.

Sgt. Bren Allred has seen all manner of criminality in beautiful Graham County, Arizona. He has managed to keep the worst of it from his wife, Monica, who is having a troubled pregnancy. But it will be difficult to keep the devils at bay as a new kind of trouble erupts across the region . When deputies Sanchez and Haley go undercover to investigate a rash of copper theft, they unwittingly stumble across a shadowy spy network. Meanwhile, Apache Police Sgt. Al Victor is confronted by a murder case involving a diplomat as he grapples with the ever-present problem of alcohol on the reservation.

Following his crimes in Bruisewater and the murder of his brother-in-law, Woodson Fulk travels with the mysterious Asher to the town of Barrenwood in the Wyoming territory. There, he meets Abigail Friedan and her posse of bounty hunters. They agree not to turn in Fulk, in exchange for his help hunting down outlaws more terrible than himself, and bringing them to justice.

Six men rode into the west Texas town of Rook in December of 1895. Moments later, all six men lay dead in the street, shot to death by the good citizens of the town. Ira “Doc” Pearson is sent by the Texas Rangers to investigate, expected to just rubber stamp the proceedings for the dead men were known as the Lawrence Gang: wanted in Texas and New Mexico for bank robberies, rustling, and murder.