Western Mystery

In this dramatic and strange story, Lefty Bill Ranger, an Alaskan mail carrier, travels to Circle City through a terrific snowstorm. There he meets Menneval - a man who is widely feared throughout the territory - and is offered a job. He is to go to Tuckerville, California, and from there to the mountain fastness where Peter Crosson and his son, Oliver, live in total isolation. Menneval wants Ranger to watch and report what he sees for a period of six months. The pay for this espionage will be $6,000 in gold.

After five years of virtual banishment because he sold out his small outfit to the Middle Arizona Cattle Company, giving it a foothold on the Mesa Grande range, violent-tempered Joe Bonnyman is summoned back to Lodgepole by his father when it appears that a cattle war between the syndicate and the various rangers is imminent. During his short stay in town, Joe has an unpleasant meeting with Ed Merrill, the brother of a girl Joe had once courted.

Enterprising Boyd Archer decides to purchase and renovate the old ghost town of Galva, Wyoming, site of the once prosperous Galva Gold Mine. During the mine’s heyday, a strongbox filled with gold and jewelry was stolen in a stagecoach robbery by Max Rigby, the vicious Black Mountain Bandit. This treasure is rumored to be hidden somewhere on his rugged mountain property. As a promotional stunt, in the spirit of fun, Archer advertises a hunt for the missing strongbox. Archer doesn’t count on the ruffians who appear in serious quest.

Bill finds himself working for the Hornets to pay off his recent debts, and save his daughters from harm. When they find out that he had attempted to kill Will, his family is against him, and he is alone.

When Carsten Whitford is arrested for a robbery he didn't commit, he struggles to clear his name that's already stained by his father's arrest from four years ago. Carsten is the sole supporter of his mother and he works the farm he has lived on his whole life.

What happens when a Korean War vet recovering from serious injuries wins a ghost town in a contest, meets a hard-riding, gun-toting cowgirl, and is threatened by three dangerous people all within a few days? Answer: cock-eyed characters, pixilated dialogue, zany romance, and heart-stopping suspense. Thus begins one of Clarence Budington Kelland's finest and rarest novels, previously only published as a seven-part serial in the legendary and best-selling magazine of its era, The Saturday Evening Post.

hn Signal, fleeing from a murder charge in a fair fight, arrives in the mining town of Monument. Calling himself John Alias, he is made a deputy sheriff by Sheriff Peter Ogden, who puts Alias between two crooked factions and fails to give him any support.

When ex-sheriff Bud Shumway and his wife, Wilma Jean, decide to vacation in a scenic Colorado town near Aspen, they never guess they’ll soon be immersed in solving the murder of a famous country-western singer. And even though Bud’s bumbling replacement, Sheriff Howie, is far away in the small town of Green River, Utah, he still manages to play havoc with everyone’s peace of mind when his sheriff’s vehicle is stolen and he finds out he’s on the wanted list of Utah’s FBI.

An Indian family is brutally murdered. Greenhorn Deputy US Marshal Jubal Smoak figures he knows the killer: the renegade Crow Redhand. In pursuit of the outlaw, the lawman rides deep into the tribal lands of the Quapaw and encounters a legend. A legend where the stirring of an ancient demon terrorizes the land. Smoak's pursuit of the killer winds him deeper into the Indian lore, on a trail that can only end in death....

Clinching is the technique used to bend a driven horseshoe nail to hold the shoe to a hoof. Rainy Dale is The Clincher, a 20-something high school-dropout turned farrier (horseshoer) who is haunted by a secret she carries. Estranged from her California D-list actress momma and her ranch hand Texas daddy, she tracked down her childhood horse in small-town Oregon - a land full of cowboys and their horses - then stayed to build a life with her tools, steel, and forge. She’s sleeping in a garage and trying not to fall for her landlord, the hapless and hopeful chef, Guy.

What kind of twisted mind does it take to commit murder? Wouldn't that callous act seem even more maniacal if it were planned, even staged, so that it unfolded like the acts of a play? When the truth finally surfaces, all legal measures will fail, and the victims will be robbed of their restitution. Could you take justice into your own hands if you knew the justice system could do nothing and seek your own revenge for the life of a loved one? But what if you were next on the list?

Jacob Gamble is a rough-riding outlaw who happens to be flat broke. But when a failed train robbery leaves him looking like a hero, Jacob lands in uncharted territory. Trying to escape his fame, and a suspicious Pinkerton detective, Jacob agrees to help the beautiful Olivia Weathers find a cave full of treasure hidden deep in Apache country - among the infamous bluffs of Canyon Diablo.

Just as Ivy’s brother Billy is about to get engaged to his beloved, a tragedy interrupts the happy moment. The body of longtime Santa Sofia resident Marisol Ruiz washes up on the beach - and it’s even more heartbreaking since Marisol’s father also recently died. But Marisol was a strong competitive swimmer. It seems unlikely there’s even a grain of truth to the theory that she accidentally drowned.

A recently retired schoolteacher, Grace Vieumilliers is busy adjusting to life as a newlywed and deputy sheriff specializing in forensic botany, when one of her best friends is found murdered on a hiking trail. In this, their third Arizona Borderland Mystery, Carl and Jane Bock once again take us to the grasslands and savannahs of southernmost Arizona, where Grace works with others in the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department to search for the killer.

Card-player-extraordinaire Poker Alice knows when hold 'em, when to fold 'em, and when to team up with master gunman Newt "Widowmaker" Jones. She's betting on Jones to protect her - and her money - on a treasure hunt in the California desert. Legend has it that a shipwreck is buried in the Salton sands. Some say it's a Spanish galleon that got stuck when the sea ran dry. Other says it's a Chinese junk full of pearls or a Viking ship filled with Aztec treasure. Either way, a lot of very mean and dangerously violent folks would kill to find it.

A mummified body, crimes from the ‘30’s, ‘80’s and present day, a Native American forensic specialist with the FBI and the women who can lead him to the body as well as the solution to the crimes of the past and present. Bullets and a blizzard drive Kam and David together, is that enough along with some shared heritage? What is Kam hiding that could drive her away from Riverview and the new man in her life? What has Megan survived that causes her nightmares? Who is trying to stop the investigation and why? All questions answered in this novel. Riverview, a ranching town where your neighbors are your friends and stand behind you when you need them. Rugged country to test all those who enter it away from the safety of town.

Alone in a rest area, Bethany is witness to a murder. The victim tells her to trust no one and begs her to take documents to his son before he dies. Hiding in endurance-ride camps and traveling with other riders to stay hidden from the killers, Bethany moves from New Mexico to Colorado. She changes everything, from her looks to the license plates on her truck. Meeting Roger, the victim's son, is problematic. Was he involved in the death of his father? Forced to make a quick decision, Bethany trusts him...up to a point.

When a county employee is found shot to death in sun-drenched daylight while sitting in his county road grader, Undersheriff Bill Gastner is faced with puzzling questions. The simplest explanation - that an errant bullet from a careless target shooter’s rifle blew out Larry Zipoli’s brains - is soon discarded as inconsistencies surface. The fatal bullet shows no rifling marks, and investigation shows that the shooter walked directly toward the road grader, in full view of the victim - who did nothing to defend himself.

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.

Rancher Mack Murphy has been buying up land in Southwest Colorado, threatening those who won’t sell, including Junior, the uncle of ex-sheriff Bud Shumway. Bud agrees to visit his uncle to help defuse things, never suspecting he would get caught right smack in the middle of Mack’s murder. And it becomes the toughest case Bud’s ever had to solve, as almost everyone is a suspect. Set in the Paradox Valley, a beautiful and remote area with a wooly Wild West history, this mystery will have you laughing, scared to death, and wondering when the mysterious Wild Man will strike again.