Western Mystery

Colorado, July 1878. The nationally famous solar eclipse is almost upon the country, and a peak overlooking the fledgling town of Elkhorn is one of the centers of attention. In the midst of boisterous and chaotic frontier pre-celebrations, Caleb Marlowe - reluctantly deputized for the coming event - learns that local power broker Judge Horace Patterson is being targeted for assassination by agents of a financial magnate.

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.

Will is missing and a minor beef has developed between Oliver, Lisa, and Evelyn. Lisa strongly believes Oliver is to blame still, even though she’d lost any evidence to make him plead guilty. Evelyn, on the other hand, after Oliver reveals Lisa’s former cases of mental illness, is unsure of who to trust. She feels alone and vulnerable. Oliver tries to make her feel better, and they end up kissing at the foot of a mountain. Lisa realizes that her sister has been brainwashed by Oliver, and goes on a one-man stalking mission, which eventually leads her to where Will is being kept captive.

When a plane crashes at the base of Black Tooth Mountain during a wicked summer storm, Patrick Flint’s moral compass leads him away from a trail ride with his family and to the wreckage in a search for survivors. But what he finds may teach him that not everything is what it seems, and not every life is worth saving.

In these dozen mystery short stories, you’ll find a newcomer’s ignorance used as a murder weapon, a modern, murderous twist on an O’Henry story, an old Irish myth that haunts a teen in an Idaho ski resort, the myriad ways to die in the desert, and much more.

After fastball phenom Prospero Stark's baseball career craters in a Mexican jail, he retreats to a trailer park in the scorching Arizona desert. He lives in peaceful anonymity with a collection of colorful outcasts until someone leaves his former catcher's severed hand on his doorstep. Beautiful, hard-living reporter Roxanne Santa Cruz, who keeps a .380 Colt and a bottle of Chivas in her car, joins Stark to help him uncover his friend's fate, a dangerous pursuit that pits them against a ruthless gang of drug-dealing killers.

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.

Nevada, 1872. Out of the merciless 40-mile desert, a stranger appears in the town of Golgotha, home to the blessed and the damned. He carries with him an innocent victim of a horrible massacre and a dire warning for Sheriff Jon Highfather. The conflict between the Indian nations and Mormon settlers has been brewing for years, and now the spirits of the fallen Indian dead have begun to rise to join in the fight.

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.

Trina Potter, Nashville country music star, buys a ranch near her hometown in Brenham, Texas, to help her niece open a rescue facility for dogs. Her presence in town stirs up some old high school rivalries—and romance. Finding property to buy is a challenge; convincing her mother to move there with her is daunting; and navigating a string of strange accidents is perplexing. Sometimes Trina feels like she’s purchased her own three-ring circus instead of a beautiful piece of land. But her first priority will be figuring out who wants Second Chance Ranch shut down.

“Bad Bobby” Trent, star high school athlete, college scholarship holder, pro-rodeo circuit rider, lived an unencumbered life. He was a man, who, by his own definition, limited his concentration to no more than eight seconds at a time - the time required to ride a bull or saddlebronc and win. He’s tough, independent, shallow, and always looking for a good time. Then his father is murdered. Sheriff Robert Trent, was the longtime chief law enforcement officer of Lodge Pole County Montana. He was stern, fair, honest, and dependable.

Flush with raw silver and ruled by a baron with an iron fist, the tiny mining outpost of Shank’s Point is under siege by a sinister evil. When the rising sun reveals the claw-torn bodies littered among the rocks, John Swift-Runner calls on his old friend, a vagabond gunfighter, to stand with him against the slaughter he knows will come. But as their band of misfits hunts for the creature on the burning sands of the Mojave, they stumble into a generations-old mystery that goes beyond shamanic curses and into the bloodstained pages of legend.

U. S. Marshal James Boutwell stumbles upon the body of a young woman while delivering a prisoner to Dallas. Boutwell gets himself appointed to investigate the murder only to realize that he has bit off more than he can chew. There are several suspects, but no clear cut evidence to connect the murder to anyone. No one has a clear motive, but the woman is dead. Then there is another young woman killed in Fort Worth, adding to the mystery.

A peaceful day of skiing for the family. The murder of a prominent judge’s wife. A witness becomes the next target: Thirteen-year-old Perry Flint. Patrick, his wife Susanne, and their kids head to the mountains for a day of skiing. At the lodge, 13-year-old Perry is the sole eye witness to the murder of a prominent judge’s wife, only days before the first capital murder trial in the state of Wyoming since its reinstatement by the US Supreme Court.

In 1900 a steadfast and feisty young woman, Jocelyn Belle Royal, joins a mule drive to earn back her Kansas farm lost to the bank. Entanglements over the mules, outlaws, women’s suffrage, and a disagreement over the governor’s mansion test her mettle to the limit. Jocelyn can’t give up if "home" can ever again be more than a few belongings tied in a shawl - all that she owns.

Patrick Flint feels a calling to volunteer at the impoverished Indian Health Services clinic on the Wind River Reservation that he can't completely explain. His wife Susanne usually supports him, but her family is coming for their first Wyoming visit, 12-year-old Perry is stir crazy and looking for trouble, teenager Trish is dangerously in love, and Suzanne and Patrick are in the final stages of negotiations on their dream house. The Christmas holidays are not a convenient time for him to be gone, or to be out of communication.

The Osage Indians lost their ancestral freedom on a windswept reservation in Oklahoma. Now, in the Roaring Twenties, the land is spewing black gold; oil has been found, and every Osage owns a share of the rights. Soon Osage tribal members are being killed for their oil royalties while a corrupt sheriff turns his back on the murders, Special Agent Frank Gordon organizes and undercover operation while working openly with frontier legend US marshal Will Proctor.

When the sheriff is murdered, his son is asked to take his place. Bobby Trent is a semi-retired rodeo cowboy and the son of a highly respected law officer. When his father, the sheriff, is murdered, Trent is asked to fulfill the remaining months of his term in office. Sheriff Bobby Trent; nobody would have guessed it, but it should be an easy enough task; drink a little coffee, maybe lead a parade. Easy work until he is healthy enough to return to the circuit.

Anomaly Defense and shapeshifter Bert Blackfeather doesn't need a boss with no experience. So what if she's beautiful or gives him a jolt when she shakes his hand? He never plans to get seriously involved with another woman - not in this lifetime. Phoebe Wagner, an empath with psychometric abilities and an advocate for the deaf, gets more than she bargained for with Bert. When his niece goes missing from Hotel LaBelle, Bert goes to Montana to help, and Phoebe decides to go with him. Can these two hard-headed people share their darkest secrets in order to work together?

Crawford County, Texas, hadn't had a deliberate homicide in 80 years, and Sheriff Charles Matthews liked that statistic just fine, particularly since his department wasn't generously endowed with manpower. Folks in Crawford County didn't altogether understand Charles Matthews. It wasn't his law degree - lots of folks had law degrees and were still respectable - and it wasn't the fact he was from Dallas. It wasn't even because he never told anybody why he left Dallas. It was because Charles had no nickname in an area where nicknames were as common as sagebrush.