Western Fiction

Demons. Monsters. Witches. James Crowley’s sacred duty as a Black Badge is to hunt them down and send them packing, banish them from the mortal realm for good. He didn’t choose this life. No. He didn’t choose life at all. Shot dead in a gunfight many years ago, now he’s stuck in purgatory, serving the whims of the White Throne to avoid falling to Hell. Not quite undead, though not alive either, the best he can hope for is to work off his penance and fade away.

Mountain men are skilled at survival. Preacher, the greatest of all those warriors of the forest, will kill anything-beast or man-that threatens his survival. Ten years ago, he taught this violent lesson to gun-crazed Ezra Pease when he ran the outlaw out of town. But Pease and his trail-scum gang are back - shooting up trouble and crossing the Big Empty to nail Preacher's hide to a tree. So Preacher's riding out to teach Pease one final lesson. But it could be too late because Pease's vicious dealings have fired up an all-out Indian war.

Leaving their Pennsylvania home to forge a new life in the untamed Oregon Territory of 1845, the Colter family is ambushed by a kill-crazy gang of cutthroats on the Oregon Trail. Fifteen-year-old Tim Colter manages to escape and hide - only to return and find his parents butchered, his sisters Nancy and Margaret missing, and one last killer waiting for his return. Forced to fight for his life, the young Colter embarks on a perilous journey across a lawless frontier, hoping to save his sisters and salvage the dream they lived for.

In the first in this trio of Western stories by Louis L'Amour - "Black Rock" - Jim Gatlin, a Texas trail driver, arrives in the town of Tucker where he finds himself quickly drawn into the middle of an all-out battle for the XY Ranch when, due to a case of mistaken identity, he kills the segundo of Wing Cary's Flying C Ranch. Gatlin is a dead-ringer for Jim Walker, who, like Cary, wants control of the XY. Gatlin is thrown into a situation in which all he can do but fight for his life. 

Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.

The first story in a fiery new series about the west's most dangerous boomtown, and the reformed outlaw who risks his life to keep it safe....In the dark shadow of the Prophecy Mountains lies the ramshackle town of Rattlesnake Wells, where dreamers come to make their fortunes, and desperados come to die. The streets of this little settlement are slick with mud and stained with blood, and it will fall to Bob Hatfield to sweep them clean. The town marshal, Hatfield, has a young man's face, but his eyes are those of a killer. He is a good man, but he has a secret that weighs on his soul.

Iraq war veteran Dan Mitchell once disobeyed an order. Now a national park ranger in the Australian outback, he’s faced with another order he is unwilling to obey.... Photographer Rachel Quinn seeks out beauty in unlikely places. But Quinn knows darkness - and Dan soon realises she needs his help as much as he needs hers. Carrie Bryant was a jockey until a racing accident broke her nerve. Now Dan and Quinn need her expertise, but can she face her fear?

She's on the run.... Tessa has finally found a safe haven in Sutter Lake, hiding in plain sight - just as long as no one asks too many questions. He can't escape.... Liam knows better than anyone how one wrong word, a single whisper can ruin a life. After seeing the darker side of fame, he's desperate to retreat and find his voice again. Two people from opposite worlds, brought together by a connection neither expected. But the forces they're both running from still lurk in the shadows. And you never know when they might strike.

No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.

Country-girl Cressida Knight fills her days with her farm, a mischievous pet bull called Reggie and her volunteer emergency services work. The busier she keeps, the less she thinks about the cowboy who left her behind. She's convinced the small-town Woodlea grapevine that she's moved on, but now it's time to move on for real. Champion bull rider Denham Rigby shares Cressy's deep love for the land, and all he's ever wanted was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Cressy through life. But three years ago a dark family secret left him no choice but to run.

What happens when you can fly, but you just can't hide? Only Jessica Pearson knows the truth about what really happened in her past, but will her new job flying an outback air ambulance help her sleep at night or atone for a lost life? Doctor Adam Gilmore touches the lives of his patients, but he has his own scars. In Coorah Creek, you're judged by what you do. But when the harshest judge is the one you see in the mirror, there's nowhere left to hide.

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon - from child to determined young adult to loving mother.

Pack rule number one: Never reveal to a human. I broke that rule the day I met the beautiful doctor. I might be a rodeo champ, but one look at her, and I lost my concentration. The bull tossed and gored me, and now the sweet female is on to me. When I healed within hours, she knew something wasn’t right. My alpha told me to watch her. Not a problem. I’ll watch her all right. Real close. I’ll stick to her like superglue. And those human men who want to date her? They’d better step back. Because the doctor is all mine. Whether she knows it yet or not.

Audie Award, Literary Fiction, 2016. The story of Jack Crabbe, raised by both a white man and a Cheyenne chief. As a Cheyenne, Jack ate dog, had four wives, and saw his people butchered by General Custer's soldiers. As a white man, he participated in the slaughter of the buffalo and tangled with Wyatt Earp.

They might call me Sir Loin of Beef, but when I see Kaitlyn for the first time, stick a fork in me, I'm done. But I won't claim her alone. Jed Cassidy and I share everything, and that includes her. If the sweet little librarian isn't ready to be wrangled by two rodeo champs, we'll just have to break her in nice and slow. She's ours. We will win her over - body and soul - and when we do? Well, let's just say we'll give her a hard ride...and it'll last a hell of a lot longer than eight seconds.

Grace Riley is on the run - from her past and from her fears. The victim of a violent rape at the hands of a rich politician's son, she must "disappear" to escape his constant attempts to recapture her. Moving from cattle drive to cattle drive as a cook, she avoids her tormentor for nearly 20 years. When she discovers that the brother she gave up for adoption after their mother died in childbirth was orphaned at an early age, she is frantic to verify that he's safe. She tracks him to a cattle ranch in Montana.

In Tennessee, 17-year-old Breckinridge Wallace knew the laws of nature. When his life was in danger, he showed a fearless instinct to fight back. Killing a thug who was sent to kill him got Breckinridge exiled from his Smoky Mountain home. Brutally wounding an Indian attacker earned him an enemy for life....

Young, beautiful, and idealistic, Tennessee Bennett longs to marry, but only for love. Unfortunately, her father intends to marry her off to the first wealthy man who will have her in order to pay his gambling debts. When his plan takes a murderous turn, Tennessee finds herself alone and penniless on the streets. Best friends James Carr and Jonah Wells have watched and wanted Tennessee for two years. Gentlemen to their bones, they have done the right thing, waiting for her to grow into a woman old enough to wake to their touch.

Rollie Finnegan is a man of few words. As a former Pinkerton agent with two decades of experience under his belt, he uses his stony silence to break down suspects and squeeze out confessions. Hence the nickname Stoneface. Over the years, he’s locked up plenty of killers. Now he’s ready to make a killing - for himself.. There’s gold in the mountains of Idaho Territory. And the town of Boar Gulch is a golden opportunity for a tough guy like Finnegan. But when he arrives, the local saloon owner is gunned down in cold blood - and Finnegan makes a cold calculation of his own. 

Marshal Will Fain and Deputy Marshal Isum Wood track an escaped murderer who has escaped from the Santa Angela jail with the help of his brothers. They defend the Fain Ranch against a vengeful posse from Fort Griffin intent on murdering Will and Isum, uncover a four-state counterfeiting operation headquartered in San Antonio, and track down one of Texas' most famous bank robbers, Jim Bob Winslow. Will and Isum refuse to recognize the border between Texas and Mexico, and go into Mexico to capture four of the toughest and most murderous outlaws ever known in Texas.