Western Mystery

From the best-selling novelist of the American West, comes a novel of romance, danger, and life along the trail.

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.

Rusty Peters moved to Hard Tack and became their sheriff, leaving his medical career and wife behind in Melville. Elmer Martin was looking for a new chance at life. He'd done some dastardly things and he wanted to change. So he became John Conroy to the citizens of Hard Tack. John prospered in Hard Tack, becoming the local butcher for the cafe. He met and fell in love with a rancher's daughter, Penelope Carver.

For four generations, the Messmers have raised cattle in the rough country of eastern Montana. When the current owners die in a motor home accident, they leave the ranch to their son - an ominous development for everyone in the area, both human and bovine. Larry Messmer left Toussaint in the 1980s, when he got in trouble for bludgeoning a horse to death, and Gabriel Du Pré hoped he would never come back. Larry announces his return by having his ranch hands kill every weak cow on the property.

The gruesome corpse of a young woman is found beside a long Montana highway called the Hi-Line. Her jaw and teeth are missing, and she is impossible to identify. Full of anger and without a clue, Du Pre begins to hunt the countryside for her murderer. As more dismembered corpses - all young women - are discovered, the small ranching community goes into shock.

Western Missouri. Former army scout Jack Gregory returns from battle to a homestead in ruins. A wanted man with no place to go, he chooses an even deadlier career - as a scout for General George Armstrong Custer. Under a new name, Jack serves bravely in the Seventh Cavalry. But when Custer's disastrous leadership ends in devastating slaughter, Jack sets off to forge his own destiny.

Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch haven't seen much trouble of late. Fact is, burgeoning Appaloosa and the territory had been without incident for months. But with recent reports of village raids, coupled with the arrival of a young widow from San Francisco, the lawmen are about to be put to the test. Rose McMaster, the feisty daughter of Virgil's half-brother, ushers in a whole new unsuspected brand of trouble.

When “Crazy” Kate Morgan learns that her sisters are the next targets on a killer’s to-do list, she’s hell-bent on chasing down trouble before it rides into Jackrabbit Junction. The problem: The darn law dogs keep nipping at her heels, tossing her in the hoosegow, and sidetracking her hunt. The solution: A posse — the pricklier, the better.

Something is rotten in the Fort Belknap Reservation. Life has always been tough on this barren stretch just south of the Canadian border, but now the children are dying. While playing his fiddle in a reservation bar, part-time deputy Gabriel Du Pré meets an accordionist who suspects that the children’s health defects and low test scores are connected to the nearby Persephone mine.

Posadas County, sitting along New Mexico's southern border, has enjoyed a surge in visitors, jobs, and prosperity since rancher Miles Waddell used much of his inherited half billion to create an internationally renowned astronomy complex atop Torrance Mesa. Passion, not profit, drives Waddell. Yet benefits include a narrow-gauge train linking the village of Posadas to NightZone. But a ripple of unease is felt across the county with the arrival of developer - no, speculator - Kyle Thompson.

Now that she’s absorbed the power of the Casper Creek nexus, Hannah Hickok is a witch on a mission. Her new powers require regular venting, and she’s surpassed even her limited expectations. It’s not magic on her mind when her father comes for a visit, though. Brad Hickok has always wanted to see Casper Creek, and now that he gets to visit, he’s extremely excited. He’s not alone, though. He’s brought his new girlfriend...and Hannah is thrown for a loop by her appearance.

The first time the Donovan twins, Lucas and Jamie, saw a Canadian Northwest Mounted Police officer, they knew that's what they wanted to be when they grew up. Years later, Lucas Donovan, now a member of the force, is on a mission to bring a ruthless serial killer to justice. For years, Jack Emerson has eluded capture in the vast Canadian wilderness, but now Donovan has vowed that nothing on earth will stop him from seeing this man caught and punished. The oath is both personal and professional, since one of the men Emerson killed was Constable Jamie Donovan, Lucas' twin brother.

T. R. Westwood, distinguished professor of biology and the galaxy's greatest hunter, is in for the biggest challenge of his career. When an unknown animal starts killing off settlers on a backwater planet run on coal and steam power, he's the only person who can help stop the slaughter. Rocks and spears or shotguns and cannons, he'll use whatever is allowed to get the job done.

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.

When he’s not risking life and limb on the back of a bronc, local rodeo star Ken Jensen runs a private investigation firm in his small Utah town. With the help of his friend and fellow investigator Dallas Welch, Ken has wrangled cattle thieves and dodged bullets. But none of that prepares him for his latest case. When a mysterious phone call from a frantic young man sends Ken and Dallas leaping into action, they find an injured rodeo performer named Herbie whose run of bad luck has turned sinister.

When Eleanor Wooley's best friend Rette suddenly disappears, Eleanor abandons her job as a crime reporter for the Gold Strike Tribune in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and sets off in desperate pursuit. What begins as a search and rescue operation quickly becomes an obsession and a personal quest for truth. Spurred by gut instinct, Eleanor scours Northeastern Nevada during the worst heat wave in recorded history. Obscure signs appear-an intruder's dire warning, a casino's mysterious graffiti, a random sighting of a killer on the run.

Ron and Jessica Stahl are a power couple from California, on a Christmas holiday in Colorado. When they stop for the afternoon in sleepy Lone Cone, they're charmed by the quaint tourist town. But the folksy hospitality will vanish as the sun drops behind the mountains. A winter storm is approaching, and the Stahls couldn’t have picked a worse night of the year to get snowed into this perfect little town with a dark, dark secret.

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.

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.

This first episode of the Montana Brides introduces Violet, Iris, and Rose Kilburn, heiresses to the Kilburn family cattle fortune. Rocking Horse Ranch runs five thousand head of cattle, but all the ranch hands are getting old. The sisters need someone to run the ranch, so the eldest sister Violet hatches the idea of getting mail order husbands for the three of them. There’s only one problem; Cornell Pollard, the sisters’ guardian and the executor of their estate, doesn’t approve.