Showing results by author "Louis L'Amour" in All Categories

When young Bendigo Shafter and a ragtag bunch of travelers settle in the rugged Wyoming mountains, they quickly come to depend on a toughness and wisdom many of them never knew they possessed. Led by the beautiful and resourceful widow Ruth Macken, the settlers battle harsh winters, renegade opportunists, and the destructive lure of gold. Through these brutally demanding experiences, young Bendigo is forged into a man.

Major James Brionne brought Dave Allard to trial for murder. Just before the hanging, Dave swore his brothers would take vengeance.... Four years later, the Allard boys returned to settle the score. Only Brionne's son escaped. They murdered his wife, destroyed his home, and left Brionne nothing but the charred ruins of his past to haunt him. Seeking peace and a new life, Brionne and the boy headed west. But the Allards hadn't finished with him. He knew they'd call him for a showdown - and this time he'd be ready....

Tom Kedrick earned his stripes during the Civil War, fought Apaches, and even soldiered overseas. But in the high desert country of New Mexico, the battle-hardened Kedrick is entangled in a different kind of war, fueled by greed and deception. Hired by Alton Burwick to drive a pack of renegades and outlaws off the government land recently set aside for an Indian reservation, Kedrick begins to notice that things are not as they seem. As his suspicions grow, he realizes that he may be fighting on the wrong side of a land swindle.

A brand new collection from Louis L'Amour, the legendary New York Times best-selling master of the short story. Here in Off the Mangrove Coast are fast-moving, historically detailed stories of the travails of extraordinary men and women struggling to break free, to capture fortune and fame, or find love. Here are the characters and the great tales that have made Louis L'Amour one of the world's most popular authors. Here are the works of a master craftsman which will live forever in the listeners' imaginations.

As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying 80,000 barrels of highly explosive naphtha. The cargo alone makes the journey perilous. But yet another sort of peril haunts the Lichenfield. Even beyond their day-to-day existence, the lives of the crew are mysteriously intertwined. Though each has his own history, dreams and jealousies, longing and rage, all are connected by a deadly web of chance and circumstance. Some are desperately fleeing the past; others chase an unknown destiny.

Using his father’s handwritten notes, journal entries, and correspondences, Beau L’Amour uncovers how and why many never-before-seen manuscripts were written - and speculates about the ways they might have ended. These selections celebrate L’Amour’s vision and virtuosity, including the first seven chapters of a powerful novel about the Trail of Tears, a chilling Western horror story, and a tale of the American Revolution featuring a character related to L’Amour’s well-known Sackett family.

Bud Miles was a boy when he crossed the Mississippi. But Bud buried his father after an Indian attack, and as the wagon train pushed on through Sioux country, the boy stood as tall as any man....Tell Sackett killed cougars at 14 and fought a war at 15. Now Tell was hauling dangerous freight - a soldier's wife and a fortune in gold--knowing that someone wanted him dead....Laurie Bonnet was a mail-order bride who thought she was a failure on the frontier.

Wetherton has been three months out of town when he finds his first "color", in a crumbling granite upthrust with a vein of quartz that is literally laced with gold! The problem is that the rocks are unstable, and taking out the quartz might just bring the whole thing tumbling down.

Set in New Mexico, A Man Called Trent opens with a nester named Dick Moffitt lying dead where he was killed by King Bill Hale's riders. Sally Crane, who is 16 and was adopted by Moffitt, and Moffitt's 14-year-old Jack witnessed the murder from their hiding place.

Kate Lundy, owner of the Tumbling B, and Conn Dury, her foreman, told Tom the rules: men from the cattle drives are forbidden on the north side of town. People appreciated the money the cowboys spent but thought them too coarse to be near their homes. Enticed to come calling by Linda McDonald, daughter of one of the leading citizens, Tom Lundy broke the law and crossed the line. Later that night, he was dead. Outraged by her brother's murder, Kate vows to destroy the entire town.

"There's Always a Trail": When a stranger named Handy offered to track down Cass Bailey's stolen money for a stake in the CB range, Bailey has nothing more to lose. "Home in the Valley": Steve Mehan had done the impossible when he drove a herd of cattle from the Nevada range to California in the dead of winter. But Mehan had little time to rest before tragedy struck. "Monument Rock": It had been many years since Lona Markham's father sent her from the rigors of ranch life to a convent school. Now she's returned to a wary, careworn man who hardly seems like the father she remembers.

Powder Basin, the broken, rugged country at the edge of a dry, forbidding desert, holds more hiding places than most men could find. Nat Bodine knows most of them; holed up in the Basin hills by a posse of over a hundred men, he needs them more than ever before. Jim Morton knows that if anyone is going to escape this posse, it's Bodine, just as he knows that Bodine is the kind of man who wouldn't commit the crime of which he's accused: and who, if forced, would seek his freedom in the savage desert sands.

Four Card Draw - Allen Ring won the Red Rock Ranch in a poker game. But a man was shot in the back there a couple of years back. The murder is still unsolved, but someone seems convinced that Allen Ring has the missing answer. Ross Bilton was one of the men who found the body, and now he's the town marshall. Ring finds himself in the middle of a mysterious conflict–and maybe headed for a showdown with the marshall.

Tell Sackett knew that gold spelled trouble faster than anything except a woman, and he had a lot of gold. Problem was, none of it was his. Tell was just delivering the gold for a fee. And now the Coopers, a gang of bloodthirsty desperadoes, were hot on his trail.

This collection of six exciting Western stories from early in Louis L’Amour’s career begins with “Fork Your Own Broncs”, in which Mac Marcy, who had saved for seven years to run his own small cattle ranch, sees his dream come true, only to have it threatened by Jingle Bob Kenyon. Also contains “Keep Travelin’, Rider”, “McQueen of the Tumbling K”, “Four Card Draw”, “Mistakes Can Kill You”, and “Showdown on the Tumbling T”.

Traversing a vivid landscape, from sunblasted hills and canyons to the nighttime streets of America's greatest cities, some of Louis L'Amour's most compelling fiction was set in his own time. Here are tales of innocents caught in the schemes of criminals, detectives hunting down truths that hide more lies, gangsters and beauties, private investigators and cops. Here is a world populated by the kinds of people who risk their lives to right a wrong, make a buck, or save a friend.

For thousands of years, the lonely canyon knew only wind and rain, wild animals, and an occasional native hunter. Then a trapper found a chunk of gold, and everything changed overnight. In six days, a town called Confusion appeared... and on the seventh it could disappear, consumed by the flames of lawlessness and violence. On one side are those who understand only brute force. On the other are men who want law and order but are ready to use a noose to achieve their ends.

In "The Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon", Mike Bastian has been raised by outlaw chief Ben Curry and trained in frontier skills by Curry's most trusted associates. Curry now wants to retire from leadership of the gang he has headed for years. But he is frustrated in this ambition by various factions within his gang who want to seize leadership and by Mike himself, who is not sure that he wants to lead the life of an outlaw.

A dusty stranger comes into the town of Boquilla in search of a drink after many hard weeks riding the trails. He enters the saloon, and within minutes the town bully is dead on the floor. Who is the stranger? Is he John Wesley Hardin? Or the legendary Marshal Kilkenny? Speculation and admiration run through the town like wildfire.

Most folks would call Kim Sartain an easygoing, peace-loving man. But the few who crossed the young drifter knew there was nothing he liked better than a good fight. When cattleman Jim Targ challenges Sartain's right to ride across an unclaimed stretch of meadow, Sartain decides he'll do better than ride through: He'll put down stakes there and homestead the land. So there's more at risk than land and pride when Targ hires a gunman to teach Sartain a permanent - and deadly - lesson