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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Westerns
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2018 'A
great, gripping story, ferociously well-written, with characters
that live and breathe' STEF PENNEY, bestselling author of Under a
Pole Star Tim Harding has spent the fishing season in Canada
working as a deckhand, making an honest living. When his hot-headed
younger brother tracks him down at the shipyards in Vancouver, Tim
senses trouble. Jake is a drifter, a dreamer, an ex-con, and now he
needs help in repaying a debt to the notorious Delaney gang. So
begins an epic, unpredictable odyssey across land and sea as the
brothers journey down to the Delaney's ranch in the U.S., chased by
customs officials, freak storms and the gnawing feeling that their
luck is about to run out. But while they may be able to outrun the
law, there's no escaping the ghosts of their tragic family past and
neither is prepared for who and what awaits at the other end...
Rediscover the golden age of the Western with this collection of
four unforgettable novels of honor, adventure, and violence set
against the magnificent landscapes of the American frontier The
heroic exploits and violent struggles of the Old West come alive
once more through this one-of-a-kind collection of four thrilling
novels. Edited by Ron Hansen, this deluxe hardcover edition shows
that the 1940s and 1950s was a golden age for the Western novel. In
the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ox-Bow Incident, Walter van Tilburg
Clark explores the thin line between civilization and barbarism
through the story of a lynch mob that targets three innocent men,
exposing a dark authoritarian impulse at work the American
frontier. Set in Wyoming in 1889, a time when ranchers and cattle
companies waged war with each other, Jack Schaefer's iconic Shane
deploys many of the genre's most essential elements, brilliantly
filtered through a boy's perceptions. Alan Le May's The Searchers,
the basis for John Ford's cinematic masterpiece starring John
Wayne, follows the dogged quest of two men to rescue a young girl
taken prisoner by Comanche warriors. And Oakley Hall's Warlock, a
novel that anticipates the later books of Cormac McCarthy and Larry
McMurtry, casts the battle for control of a southwestern outpost as
a bloody saga pitting a marauding gang of cowboys and rustlers
against the town's defenders, led by the legendary gunslinger Clay
Blaisedell. All four novels were memorably adapted for the screen,
and their gripping stories--told with brisk narrative energy,
psychological depth, and laconic humor--have contributed
unforgettably to the Western's enduring legacy in American culture.
The cowboy, one of the greatest fictional characters in American
literary history, is more than a man or a myth; he is an identity,
the soul of a country that started out as the wild and unruly and
has risen to the civilized and respected. The Greatest Cowboy
Stories Ever Told includes twenty-three exciting stories from a
variety of contributors, such as Mark Twain, Karl May, Tom McGuane,
Larry McMurtry, Edgar Beecher Bronson, Frederic Remington, Max
Brand, and John Graves. The Golden Age of the Cowboy, or what has
been called the Kingdom of Cattle, lasted from the close of the
Civil War to the turn of the 20th century. Barbed wire and the iron
horse put paid to the free range and the long trail drive just as
the coming of the law obviated the need for the rough chivalry of
the code of the West. Though the days of dueling-every individual
was for himself and men were expected to settle their own
scores-are over, it is memories of these drastic times and extreme
measures and the people who lived them that remain our defining
characteristics. This book is filled with some of the most
action-filled and exciting stories ever to come out of the American
landscape.
In the mining town of Goetia, the world is divided between The
Fallen, descendants of demonkind, and The Virtues, the winners in
an ancient war. Celeste and Mariel are two Fallen sisters, bound by
blood but raised in separate worlds. Celeste grew up with their
father, passing in privileged society, while Mariel stayed with
their mother in Goetia's slums. Celeste is wracked by guilt for
leaving her sister behind, and when their father dies, she becomes
Mariel's fiercest protector. But their lives are upended when
Mariel is arrested for the murder of a Virtue. Determined to save
her sister and prove her innocence, Celeste turns to her ex-lover,
a former general in the armies of Hell, for help. Soon Celeste is
making her own deals with devils and angels alike to prove her
sister's innocence. However the journey to discover the truth
threatens to become more than Celeste ever bargained for.
The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of News of the World
and Enemy Women returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at
the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a
ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a
living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart. In
March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is winding
down. Till now, twenty-three-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded
military duty thanks to his slight stature, youthful appearance,
and utter lack of compunction about bending the truth. But
following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself
conscripted, however belatedly, into the Confederate Army. Luckily
his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in
a regimental band. Weeks later, on the eve of the Confederate
surrender, Simon and his bandmates are called to play for officers
and their families from both sides of the conflict. There the
quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can't help but notice the lovely
Doris Mary Dillon, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is
governess to a Union colonel's daughter. After the surrender, Simon
and Doris go their separate ways. He will travel around Texas
seeking fame and fortune as a musician. She must accompany the
colonel's family to finish her three years of service. But Simon
cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will
find her again. Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette
Jiles's trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler is a
captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will
take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart's yearning.
"Jiles' sparse but lyrical writing is a joy to read. . . . Lose
yourself in this entertaining tale." - Associated Press
Nobody was more surprised than Mattie herself when Luke Spenser,
considered the great catch of their small Iowa town, asked her to
marry him. Less than a month later, they are wed and setting off in
a covered wagon to build a home on the Colorado frontier. Mattie's
only company, aside from a taciturn and slightly mysterious new
husband, is her private journal, where she records the joys and
frustrations not just of frontier life, but also of marriage to a
handsome but distant stranger. As Mattie and Luke make a life
together on the harsh and beautiful prairie, battling the fierce
odds imposed by weather, illness, and lawlessness, Mattie learns
some bitter truths about her husband and the woman he left behind,
and finds love where she least expects it.
Captain Gus Rodgers of the Texas Rangers is dying--and before he
goes, he needs Jim's help to free his grandson from a Mexican
prison. Trouble is, the "Federale" general holding him wants the
head of the boy's brother, Billy, who has already confessed to
murdering the general's daughter. Gus believes Billy deserves to
die. The old ranger's just worried he won't live long enough to do
the deed--which is where Jim Glass comes in.
Gus's wild grandsons may be a lot of things--brutal, ignorant,
and dangerous, to name three--but they may not actually be guilty
of this particular crime. And when the truth comes out, there's
bound to be a war. And no one's going to escape unbloodied . .
.
All lovers of westerns know these four great stories. The Western
Writer's Association of America ranked them as four the best short
stories of the 20th century, but these classic tales have never
been collected in one book until now. This edition is destined to
earn a place in every western library. In 2005, Dorothy Johnson
will receive a star in the Gallery of Outstanding Montanans at the
Montana State Capitol.
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In a lonely valley, deep in the mountains, a ranger watches over
the last surviving grizzly bear. With the natural world exhausted
and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single
fragment of the wild. One night, he hears voices in the valley -
poachers, come to hunt his bear. A heart-pounding chase begins,
crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human
ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey - Ben must choose the
bear's fate and his own. Is he willing to lay down his life for a
dying breed? Is he willing to kill for it?
"Dell takes you on a fun, wild ride!" -B.J. DANIELS, New York Times
Bestselling Author He'd step in front of a bull to save a life But
even he's no match for a girl this Texas tough Rodeo bullfighter
Wyatt Darrington's got it all figured out. The perfect car, the
perfect job, the perfect looks-the perfect lie. He may be on the
fast track to the Hall of Fame, but he knows he'll always be an
outsider to people like Melanie Brookman. Texas-born and bred, with
the arena in her blood, Melanie's come to see Wyatt as her personal
enemy, and that suits him just fine-this way, she'll never realize
the truth. He's been crazy in love with her for years. Melanie's
always been a fighter. Fiercely independent and tough as nails,
she's stood up to everything that got in her way-including Wyatt.
But now her infamous temper's got her on the ropes, and there's
nowhere left to run but toward the man she swore she'd never
trust...and this time, there's no denying just how hot he makes her
burn. Texas Rodeo Series: Reckless in Texas (Book 1) Tangled in
Texas (Book 2) Tougher in Texas (Book 3) Fearless in Texas (Book 4)
Mistletoe in Texas (Book 5) What People Are Saying about the Texas
Rodeo series: "Look out, world! There's a new cowboy in town."
-CAROLYN BROWN, New York Times Bestselling Author "An
extraordinarily gifted writer."-KAREN TEMPLETON, author of Wed in
the West series "Real Ranches. Real Rodeo. Real Romance."-LAURA
DRAKE, author of Sweet on a Cowboy series "A sexy, engaging romance
set in the captivating world of rodeo."-Kirkus "Illuminating...a
standout in western romance."-Publishers Weekly
What happens when a two-headed cowboy, a high school dropout who
longs to be a scholar, and a poet who claims to have been abducted
by aliens come together in 1970's Moab, Utah? The Scholar of Moab,
a dark-comedy perambulating murder, affairs, and cowboy mysteries
in the shadow of the La Sal Mountains.
Young Hyrum Thane, unrefined geological surveyor, steals a
massive dictionary out of the Grand County library in a midnight
raid, startling the people of Moab into believing a nefarious band
of Book of Mormon assassins, the Gadianton Robbers, has arisen
again.
Making matters worse, Hyrum's illicit affair with Dora Tanner, a
local poet thought to be mad, ends in the delivery of a premature
baby boy who vanishes the night of its birth. Righteous Moabites
accuse Dora of its murder, but who really killed their child? Did a
coyote dingo the baby? Was it an alien abduction as Dora claims?
Was it Hyrum? Or could it have been the only witness to the crime,
one of a pair of Oxford-educated conjoined twins who cowboy in the
La Sals on sabbatical?
Take a rollicking ride with Hyrum LeRoy Thane, the Lord's Chosen
Servant and Defender of Moab. His short rich life spans the
borderlands of magical realism where geology, ecology, philosophy
and consciousness collide, in Steven L. Peck's rip-roaring tale The
Scholar of Moab.
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