Western Fiction

As the deputy sheriff in a small Missouri town, "Slick" Parker Jones doesn't have much to do except get drunk and chase saloon girls. Life is pretty dull in Rory's Junction—until Slick sees the wanted poster for a notorious train robber. Parker's never met an actual outlaw before. He's never faced any real dangers, to be honest. But when that wanted man staggers into Parker's nightly watering hole—half dead, with a hole in his gut and a bloody map in his hand—the young deputy's life takes a wild turn . . . quite possibly fatal.

Trace Riley has been self-appointed guardian of the trail ever since his own wagon was attacked. When he finds the ruins of a wagon train, he offers shelter to survivor Deborah Harkness and the children she saved. Trace and Deborah grow close working to bring justice to the trail, but what will happen when the attackers return to silence the only witness?

He is the Virginian-the first fully realized cowboy hero in American literature, a near-mythic figure whose idealized image has profoundly influenced our national consciousness. This enduring work of fiction marks the birth of a legend that lives with us still.

Once upon a time in the Old West, Buck Trammel was a Pinkerton agent with a promising future. But after a tragic incident in a case gone wrong, he struck out for the wide-open spaces of Wichita, Kansas. Working as a bouncer at the Gilded Lily Saloon, he hopes to stay out of trouble. But soon enough, his gun skills are put to the test. The Bower gang shows up, turning a friendly card game with a Wyoming cattle baron into a killer-takes-all shooting match. Buck saves the cattle baron's life, but at the cost of two Bower men. That's when Deputy Wyatt Earp arrives.

The Sheriff of Absaroka confronts a cabal of devious outlaws who are hell bent on getting what they want, even though they have to bend and break the law. Walt is stretched to his physical limits to try to stop them, and has to answer the question of just how far he will go to stop these outlaws. Fans of the series will love seeing Walt put into this almost impossible situation, and new fans will fall for the venerable Sheriff as he ties to uphold the law and his own values in this high-stakes mystery from the master of the Western crime novel.

He came west to the Rockies as a young runaway and grew into a legend among the already legendary frontier mountain men. They called him Preacher - a name that would become a monument to all who sought adventure in the savage wilderness of America's untamed west. The only man with the skills to lead a wagon train on the last leg of the rugged Oregon trail, Preacher knows they're headed into trouble. It's hard enough for a hundred greenhorns to survive the wilds of the northwest; being pursued by thieving renegade outlaws and Indians with a thirst for gold makes it damn near impossible.

Preacher and his son Hawk are riding the High Lonesome when the clear mountain air is split by a girl's savage screams. A gang of ruthless trappers has kidnapped a Crow woman, but before they escape with her, Preacher and Hawk burst out of the tree line, guns spitting fire. They drive the trappers off, only to find that she's not Crow, but white. Caroline has been raised by the Crow since childhood, the only people she's ever known. To get her home, Preacher and Hawk will have to blast their way off this mountain, gunning down kill-crazy trappers and merciless Blackfeet warriors.

My life is a mess. I've become the loser my father expected me to be, and now I'm stuck on his ranch. The only good thing in this scenario is the foreman, Blake. I never thought a hot, older man like him would notice me, yet he sees the hidden part of me that longs for someone to care. I wasn't sure I wanted a Daddy, but I love the way Blake takes care of me, challenges me, pushes me to be my best self. I want to make him proud. I want to keep him, even though we seem to belong in different worlds.

Alex Bishop is your typical cowboy. Charming, sexy, and wears a panty-melting smirk. Working on the ranch helped build his solid eight-pack and smoking body. He's every girl's wet fantasy and he knows it too. Alex doesn't follow the rules of your typical playboy bachelor. After wining and dining his dates and giving them the best night of their lives, he always sends flowers and calls the next day - even if it's to say, let's just be friends. His mama taught him manners after all and his Southern blood knows how to be a gentleman.

During a trip back east for a family reunion, Preacher learns that even the civilized Midwest can attract a motherlode of trouble...especially when a gang of local bully boys decide to pick a fight. Now wealthy landowner Elam Parks lies dead - and there's a $5,000 reward on the head of the man accused: the first mountain man. The fortune in blood money has dispatched a small army of bounty hunters after Preacher. Now, back in his once-peaceful homestead in the High Lonesome, as he sights down the barrel of his '33 Hall North breechloader, Preacher is ready for target practice.

Having garnered three RITA Awards, New York Times best-selling author Jodi Thomas is one of several Texans inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame. Assuming someone else’s identity, a 16-year-old flees to Harmony, Texas. There she keeps her distance from the welcoming townsfolk. But when prairie fires threaten the small town, she learns the true meaning of family, friendship, and home.

He's the son of a cattle rancher. A restless young dreamer who, under normal circumstances, would follow in his father's footsteps. Normal, however, is not his style. Like his famous grandfather and namesake Perley Gates - a hell-raising mountain man with a heavenly name - young Perley wants adventure, excitement, and freedom. And like his grandfather before him, he will find his dream - in the untamed wilds of a lawless frontier. That dream though might just become a nightmare....

Summoned back to Philadelphia from the social whirl in London, Violet Mitchell never expected to find her brothers living on the edge of financial ruin while their father seeks new wealth in Montana's gold fields. With the family's home and social standing at risk, Violet makes a drastic decision.

Before he left for Afghanistan, Jake O'Reilly had everything - a beautiful wife, a baby on the way, a wonderful life. Three years later his wife is dead, and he is so haunted by his memories of war that he can't bring himself to go home. But when his wife's grandfather tracks him down and persuades him to come work on his ranch, where Jake's daughter is living, he agrees - even though he is reluctant to expose his little girl to the man he's become.

Esther is a stowaway. She's hidden herself away in the Librarian's book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her - a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

A Rocky Mountain winter has left Breck reeling from the carnage unleashed by bloodthirsty trapper Judd Carnahan - and readying a quest for vengeance as ruthless as their prey. It gets even deadlier when Carnahan lays siege to a trading post on the Yellowstone River. He's left the owner dead and kidnapped a pretty hostage who can turn a nice profit once he puts her to work.

RITA Award winner Jodi Thomas continues her Whispering Mountain series with this second installment. Horse breeder Tobin McMurray doesn’t venture too far from his homestead. But when a Texas senator offers Tobin handsome compensation to deliver a horse to his daughter and teach her how to ride, he grudgingly agrees. Soon Tobin finds himself falling in love with the beautiful woman—but their budding romance is headed straight for danger.

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.

Matt Jensen, reared by legendary mountain hero Smoke, is the last of a proud breed. He will soon learn that dispensing justice with a gun is the only true way to execute righteous revenge in the Old West.

He was raised by the mountain man called Preacher, and he was said to be the fastest gun alive. Until he hung up his gunbelts to raise a family. Smoke Jensen was the last mountain man and a force of nature. But Lee Slater and his gang of low life desperadoes didn’t know that. Stirring up a motherlode of trouble for the retired gunslinger was Slater’s first mistake. Shooting Smoke Jensen’s wife Sally was his second.