Showing results by narrator "Michael Taylor" in All Categories

For many bold pioneers headed west, the sweetest sight of all was the Humboldt River, a crooked ribbon of silver snaking through Nevada into California. But to Libby Pike and her family, the Humboldt brought sudden disaster. Stranded with her young daughter, Libby found herself surrounded by hostile renegades and an unforgiving wilderness. Then she stumbled upon a father and his two sons in search of a dream valley where they could settle and prosper.

First they shot his father - then they stole his land. Cole Randall aimed to get even. But it will take more than one angry man to fight the banks, the railroads, and the crooked lawmen who back them. So Cole Randall figured he needed an army; if that couldn't be had, then an able partner.... And if that partner could outride and outshoot any man in Wyoming, so much the better! That the best partner was a woman...well, that might be a challenge.

Though he made his name and fortune as an author of Western novels, Zane Grey's best writing has to do with fishing. There, he was free from the conventions of the Western genre and the market's expectations, and was able to blend his talent for narrative with his keen eye for detail and sense of humor (much of it self-deprecating) into his books and articles.

It's 1943 and Newport, Kentucky (AKA Little Mexico) is the bawdiest spot in America. Nick Cavanaugh, a sailor on leave, finds himself taking sides with independent casino owners Carl and Pearl Jules against the powerful Syndicate, which wants to keep this territory all to itself.

Buck Wallace was determined to make his home by the Pecos River. He vowed to live alongside the Kwahadies and carve his own private paradise out of the wilderness. But the trail to peace was long, hard and stained with the blood of the few who went before him. He would have to brave the challenge of the legendary warrior Goyah...learn the perils and pleasures of love from the beautiful Kiowa woman Asa...and test his will to survive in a land of infinite promise...and intense danger.

Society had turned its back on them, and they were only too happy to return the favor. They were the Outcasts, unwanted by their own people, with no one to rely on but themselves. Together they rode west, seeking a land where they could be free to live the way they wanted.

Stu Carlson serves people drinks. Night after night, in the dry Texas heat, he stands behind the bar and listens to troubles and sorrows and worries and regrets—not too far off from his old position behind a pulpit. Doling out counsel and care, Stu’s a compassionate man. When the scotch he serves Andrew Washburn—Dean of Fine Arts and all-around asshole—turns out to have been poisoned, Stu is shaken. A regular at Stu’s bar, meek and talented Daniel Lackland, is arrested for the crime.

Harlow Brewster had purchased the North Basin grasslands from the Shoshone fair and square, and paid for the land with blood. So the boss of the Lazy 8 wasn't about to see a bunch of nesters turn his range into a plowed-up dust bowl. If the law couldn't get rid of the grangers, Brewster would make his own law - with a couple of loads of buckshot and a stout piece of hangin' rope.

Riding into Willow Springs, Texas, Jefferson Davis King trails a horse behind him intended as a gift for his friend, C. D. Hollis. But Sheriff Hollis isn't around to collect; he'd been killed with a shotgun blast weeks earlier by an unknown gunman.

Buck Wallace, a lone white man in the land of the Kwahadie Comanche, was determined to make his home by the Pecos River. He vowed to live alongside the Kwahadies and carve his own private paradise out of the wilderness. But the trail to peace was long, hard and stained with the blood of the few who went before him. He would have to brave the challenge of the legendary warrior Goyah...learn the perils and pleasures of love from the beautiful Kiowa woman Asa...and test his will to survive.

Eastward, as far as the eye could see, stretched the Great Plains. Westward rose the Rockies, snow-capped peaks of grandeur. In the middle flowed a mighty river - silent, glistening, and turbulent - the bloodline of a wide and wild land. Three hard, tough men staked their claims on its potent shores: Jake Stonecipher, pioneer merchant, seeking his fortune yet finding a war; Will Burke, a mountain man as savage as the wilderness itself; and Francisco Serrano, determined to carve a fertile ranch out of the stubborn soil.

Amid the magnificent desolation of the American Southwest ran a river of hope, bringing life to the desert, and pioneers to a forbidding land. They gathered on the banks of the Purgatory...wandering souls on the run from the past...or in search of the future: Hernan Eduardo and his sister Elena, posing as husband and wife to hide her shame; Aaron, who has fled from danger his whole life, and who has to summon the courage to stand up for his rights; and Talks To Ghosts, a native on a vision quest.

Not far from the glitter of this world-famous adult playground, the killer claims his victims. Driven by a deep hatred for women, he begins his reign of terror by seeking out those who remind him of someone from his past. Someone who caused him great pain. As the body count rises, the national news media pick up on the story. Pressure for a speedy apprehension is brought to bear by feminist groups and politicians. But the killer is both daring and intelligent. He leaves little in the way of clues or evidence that will lead to his being identified.

Christian Dejoux, a 14-year-old boy living in Strasborg, France in 1890 loses his father. His mother sends the boy to Paris. War breaks out between France and Prussia, with Paris surrounded. The impressionist painter Manet employs Christian to pose for his famous painting The Fifer, and rewards him with the uniform. Penniless, his best friend and father deceased, Christian enlist in the French army.

The biggest thing to happen to Skary, Indiana, is renowned horror novelist Wolfe Boone, or "Boo" as the locals fondly call him. For the past 16 years, the reclusive writer has been the town's greatest attraction, having unintentionally turned the once struggling Skary into a thriving tourist trap for the dark side.

But when a newly reformed Wolfe suddenly quits the genre and subsequently starts to pursue Skary's favorite girl-next-door, Ainsley Parker, the little town becomes truly horrified.

On June 25, 1876, five troops of the U. S. Seventh Cavalry, under command of General George Armstrong Custer, rode into the valley of the Little Big Horn River expecting to rout the Indian encampment there. Instead they were met by the gathered strength of the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, who did not run, but turned to battle the soldiers.

When a soccer field complex springs to life seemingly overnight in the sleepy community of Skary, Indiana, and the local coffee shop begins offering computer access along with its suddenly overpriced beverages, nerves start getting edgy all over town. Is it possible new comer (and soccer mom) Katelyn Downey is hatching a diabolic plot to turn their slow-paced town into a den of hip suburban iniquity, or might this be the perfect solution to the community's financial woes?

The author "discovered" the feline world's best-kept secret in a file hidden on his mother's computer by her cat, Cleo, and now shares it with humanity for the first time. Topics covered range from avoiding visits to the vet, to the artful display of captured prey, to getting in the way of a human trying to read anything, including this paragraph. Upon publication, Cleo denied authorship and hired a team of lawyers with their claws out, but despite her best efforts, word is spreading with over 75,000 Kindle downloads.

Mart Kincaid may be the fastest gun in the state, but it does him no good - because his gun and his life are not his own. They belong to Gar Malone, the King of Concha Basin, a ruthless rancher driven by his thirst for power, wealth, and conquest. Now Gar has set his sights on the Singing Canyon spread - the richest land in the basin - and he commands Kincaid to run its true owners off. If not, he threatens to reveal a dark secret that could ruin Kincaid's brother.

Gold - a man either had to fight for it or dig for it, and Bolton had always liked guns better than shovels. So he took the job Wells Fargo offered. It was five dollars a day and a new Greener shotgun - and all he had to do was shepherd a king's ransom in gold across 100 miles of Hell.