Western Fiction

Louisa Bell never wanted to be a dance-hall singer, but dire circumstances force her hand. Major Daniel Adams has his hands full at Fort Reno. He can barely control his rowdy troops, much less his two adolescent daughters. If Daniel doesn't find someone respectable to guide his children, his mother-in-law insists she'll take them. When Louisa arrives with some reading materials, she's mistaken for the governess who never appeared.

Some love stories have to begin with a falling-out-of-love story.... Mattie Carrigan's been helping her rodeo-cowboy husband, Wes Bishop, run his family's Tennessee walking horse operation since they were married 19 years ago. Blessed with twin daughters who've recently left for college, Mattie is looking forward to this new stage in her and Wes' life. But when she finds a strange key in her husband's jacket, she's forced to admit that Wes has been quiet and distant lately.

Marshal Will Fain and Deputy Marshal Isum Wood track an escaped murderer who has escaped from the Santa Angela jail with the help of his brothers. They defend the Fain Ranch against a vengeful posse from Fort Griffin intent on murdering Will and Isum, uncover a four-state counterfeiting operation headquartered in San Antonio, and track down one of Texas' most famous bank robbers, Jim Bob Winslow. Will and Isum refuse to recognize the border between Texas and Mexico, and go into Mexico to capture four of the toughest and most murderous outlaws ever known in Texas.

It’s been barely a decade since the notorious gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Rustlers and outlaws still terrorize the land, and the good citizens of Tombstone are at the end of their ropes. Enter Texas John Slaughter — the new sheriff of Cochise County and the toughest lawman west of the Rio Grande. With a young pretty wife, a sprawling cattle ranch, and a backbone of steel to match the iron law of his badge, Texas John is determined to bring peace to this parched desert hell even if it kills him.

Kate Coldane has sweated blood for this saloon, and she won’t let it go down without a fight. Silas Atwood may be the richest rancher in Hudspeth County, but that doesn’t give him the right to push her around. When Atwood sends one of his goons to cause trouble at her watering hole, Kate’s son Rusty guns him down. It may have been self defense, but Atwood is the law, and that means Rusty has to run.

Luke Jensen has seen some sorry looking bounties in his time, but this one takes the cake. A wanted poster is offering a reward of one dollar and 42 cents — plus one busted harmonica — to capture Three-Fingered Jack McKinney. Turns out, McKinney’s 12-year-old son Aaron wants revenge on his daddy for abandoning him and his mom. The reward is all the money Aaron can scrape together. Luke can’t say no to the poor boy — or his beautiful mother — so he agrees to go after McKinney and his bank-robbing gang.

Author Linda Lael Miller shines in this contemporary Western romance. When Dylan Creed finds out that his young daughter has been abandoned by her selfish mother, he quickly regains custody of her and moves home to the family ranch. His old flame Kristy Madison can’t believe her eyes when he rolls into town, ready to settle down and be a father - but can Dylan earn himself a second chance?

Exiled from the Smoky Mountains for gunning down a man in self-defense, Breck Wallace tries to make a new home in St. Louis, even tries his hand at romance, but some men are too wild to settle down. Breck is soon back on the trail, where a vicious gang of trappers, after his goods, picks up his scent and begins to dog his every step, until Breck’s only choice is to bed down for the winter with a tribe of friendly Indians. In the frigid, brutal cold of a Rocky Mountain winter, he hopes to find peace...but death is not done with Breck Wallace.

Conrad Browning is The Loner, a man on a mission, crossing the country — and crossing a lot of bad men — to rescue his kidnapped young twins. The trail has led him all the way to San Francisco’s perilous red light-district, where a crime lord is the proud father of newly adopted twins. The Loner knows his children when he sees them. But they’re hostage to a brutal, violent mob feud. Then, just when he needs it most, The Loner is no longer alone: He is joined by his own father, Frank Morgan — the most notorious gunman in the West.

Ignatius O’Reilly is famous for his beautifully crafted counterfeit money. John Henry Sixkiller is famous for hunting criminals into the most violent and dangerous worlds most lawman dare not go. Now, the Deputy U.S. Marshal is zeroing on O’Reilly in San Francisco, when the case blows up in his face. Instead of O’Reilly, Sixkiller finds a beautiful woman and a meddling Federal agent from the Secret Service. O’Reilly gets away and the hunt leads Sixkiller after the woman, the counterfeiter, and the Fed into the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The accidental gunslinger Dooley Monahan has quit wandering and settled down to a farmer’s life. But when the itch for adventure gets too strong, he packs up and rides west. Along with his horse General Grant, and Blue, a dog who’s too smart for his own good, Dooley rides for the Black Hills to strike it rich in the gold fields of Colorado. But fate has other ideas.

When a wealthy cattle baroness hires Joe Buckhorn to track down her son, it sounds like easy money. But when he learns that the boy has run off with a girl - whose father is the leader of the cattle-rustling Riley clan - Buckhorn's only hope is to infiltrate the gang. Gain their trust. Live the outlaw life, even at the risk of death. There's just one problem: there's more than one gang. The Riley girl may have stolen a runaway boy's heart but the other gangs are stealing the baroness's cattle.

When an explosion kills men and damages the CR Mining Company, the Bodens realize their troubles are not behind them as they thought. Shadowy forces are still working against them. Cole Boden finds himself caught between missing his time back East and all that New Mexico offers. Sure, he fights with his siblings now and then, but he does care for them. He enjoys running the mine and, when he's honest, he admits that Melanie Blake captures his interest in a way no other woman ever has.

Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was a diminutive, charming, blond-haired young man who, growing up in New York, Kansas, and later New Mexico, demonstrated a precocious dexterity at firing six-shooters with either hand - a skill that turned him into an American legend of the old West. He was smart, well spoken, attractive to both white and Mexican women, a good dancer, and a man with a nose for money, horses, and trouble. His spree of crimes and murders has been immortalized in dime Westerns, novels, and movies.

Luke Jensen has seen some sorry-looking bounties in his time, but this one takes the cake. A wanted poster is offering a reward of one dollar and 42 cents - plus one busted harmonica - to capture Three-Fingered Jack McKinney. Turns out, McKinney's 12-year-old son Aaron wants revenge on his daddy for abandoning him and his mom. The reward is all the money Aaron can scrape together. Luke can't say no to the poor boy - or his beautiful mother - so he agrees to go after McKinney and his bank-robbing gang.

Lilly Preston took a leap of faith and moved to Gracely a year ago to save her nephew from an abusive situation. She would do anything for him, even sacrifice her glamorous job. Reluctantly, the former PR hot shot takes a job at the ruggedly handsome Evans brothers' Mile High Adventures, a company offering restorative Rocky Mountain vacations. Brandon thinks PR is pointless, and Lilly knows less than nothing about the outdoors. Which is exactly why they need each other - in ways neither ever imagined.

On a midnight train, four hours away from her wedding, Beth McMurray discovers the devastating truth about the powerful senator she's about to marry. Convinced nothing could make this stormy night worse, the train wrecks, and she tumbles straight into the arms of an outlaw. Andrew McLaughlin doesn't believe in loving except between the pages of his writings. He loved deeply once and thinks he'll never survive another loss. To save a friend, he climbs aboard a train heading toward Dallas.

More than any writer before or since, Louis L'Amour brought the American West to life. His action-packed stories deal with eternal themes: honor, deceit, passion, betrayal, loyalty, courage, love. His settings are historically accurate, his prose riveting, and his characters colorful: good guys, bad guys, toughs, roughs, sidekicks, and saints.

Rodeo producer Cole Jacobs has his hands full running Jacobs Livestock. He can't afford to lose a single cowboy, so when cousin Violet offers to send along a more-than-capable replacement, he's got no choice but to accept. He expects a grizzled Texas good ol' boy. He gets Shawnee Pickett. Wild and outspoken, ruthlessly self-reliant, Shawnee's not looking for anything but a good time. It doesn't matter how quickly the tall, dark, and intense cowboy gets under her skin - Cole deserves something real, and Shawnee can't promise him forever.

A fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary Egyptian theology, Burroughs' final novel is poignant and melancholic. Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer, The Western Lands confirms Burroughs' status as one of America's greatest writers. The final novel of the trilogy begun with Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads is a Book of the Dead for the nuclear age, an astonishing, profound, and revealing meditation on morality, loneliness, life, and death.