THE DEAD MAN S JOURNEY Journada del Muerte, the locals called it: the blistering ocean of sand and sage between the Rio Grande River to the west and the Sacramento mountain range to the east. The bones of men and horses had bleached in the mile-high desert for three hundred years. Spanish conquistadors were the first white men to explore this new furnace of the Southeastern New Mexico Territory and the first to perish. In the thin air, the riders coming down the mountain were sharply etched against the blue sky. Steam, blowing out of the ice-encrusted nostrils of their mounts and their two pack horses, surrounded the horsemen in a white veil. Descending the eastern face of the Sacramento mountains, the horses walked slowly and painfully on cracked hooves. The icy earth offered only a steep path paved with shards of glass; blood seeped around well-worn iron horseshoes. When the riders looked to the sky, they saw that the white sun would stay high enough for them to make Fort Stanton, ten miles into the valley. The riders knew the trail since boyhood. Words were not wasted in country where a man s mouth would crack and bleed like his horse s hooves. Beyond the fort lay the clapboard settlement of Lincoln. When Grady Rourke died, his sons, Sean, Patrick, and Liam, came back to claim the family land . . . What was left of it. It was January, 1878, when the Rourke brothers came back to this hard and dangerous land. They thought they were coming home. What they didn t know was that they were about to become part of a vicious struggle for power. And that they would be forced to choose sides with either John Tunstall and Alexander McSween or J. J. Dolan and Sheriff William Brady. The battle would quickly become the infamous Lincoln County War a dirty little war with no rules, no heroes, and no happy endings. Douglas Savage, the acclaimed author of Cedar City Rendezvous and Highpockets has taken the historical facts surrounding the Lincoln County War and its fascinating characters, and fashioned one of the most readable and revealing tales of the American frontier.

Franklin Pierce was president of the United States in 1855, the Mexican War had just ended; the horrors of the American Civil War had not yet begun. The last of the free spirits known as the Mountain Men were securing their place in the legends of the frontier. Among these fierce adventurers was a man who called himself Highpockets. Into the harsh wilderness Highpockets had come to escape the soot of the cities and the terrible memories of war; with nothing but the strength of his heart and hands he had carved out a life of freedom in the nearly inaccessible high places of the Rocky Mountains. In the autumn of his days Highpockets stumbled across a half-frozen, half-dead immigrant boy who had wandered in the snow and ice-terrified after having been separated from the wagon train carrying his Eastern European family across the vast new world. Highpockets called the boy Cub and took him to the wilderness domain the old man called My Mountain. There, for one long winter, they lived together; the young boy learned a new language and a way of life that he'd never even imagined existed. By the end of the winter, the old man knew that Cub had learned everything he needed to know to survive in a land as dangerous as it was awesomely beautiful. It would have to be enough and more than enough . . . for at the end of that winter Highpockets had agreed to face the council of his old enemy, Painted Elk, to atone for the murder of the chief's son. Both Cub and Highpockets would be judged by the council of Elders . . . and both would learn that justice in the high places was both fair . . . and deadly.

Did you ever wounder what your ancestor's lives were like? This is an account of an actual family that homesteaded in Nebraska in the19th century. They struggled through a prairie fire, blizzards, dust storms and opposition to their very existence. Although they lived on borrowed money most of the time and squeezed every penny, they were able to increase their land holdings. The original 160 acre homestead evolved into a ranch of more than7,000 acres 60 years later. Actual local area history is woven into this family's lives during six decades. Such as the time Buffalo Bill went to Rushville to recruite Indians for his Wild West Shows. Included is the effect upon the family of the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. The Furman and Jackson families are true. Also, Buffalo Bill, Jules Sandoz, and Jim Asay were actual people. All other names are fictitious.

Cody Winters, a former lawman and most recently a trapper in the rugged northern wilderness of Arizona, was headed for Camp Wood-a town where he hoped to settle down and begin a new life for himself. He would soon learn that strangers were not always welcomed in Camp Wood. Those that stayed too long typically ended up at the undertakers. From the moment he rode into town, he fell under the critical sharp-eyed gaze of the always ruthless and often corrupt town marshal. As Cody rode up the street, he fell under the curious blue-eyed gaze of another set of eyes as well. They belonged to Miss Holly Granger, the beautiful daughter of a prosperous cattle rancher. The rancher's daughter and the former lawman would soon meet and, from that moment on, see their lives swept away toward an unforeseen adventure, and with it ... hidden danger at every turn. "This riveting story of the Old West is packed with adventure, danger, old-fashion frontier justice, and steamy romance." -the Author

A THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR "MY NAME IS YIP TOLROY & I am a mute. I have made not a sound since the day of my birth, October 2nd, 1815. I will say that my life has been something of a trial but such is God's wish & so I must tell my story here on the page." Yip Tolroy and his fiery Mama run the general store in Heron's Creek, Georgia. An uneventful life, until gold is discovered nearby and Yip is caught up in a bloody, grievous crime forcing him to flee. On the run, friendless and alone, he meets Dud Carter a savvy but unlikely companion. Together, they embark on a journey that thrusts them unwittingly into a world of menace and violence, of lust and revenge. And, as Yip and Dud's odyssey takes them further into the unknown - via travelling shows, escaped slaves and the greed of gold-hungry men - the pull of home only gets stronger. But what will they find there if they ever return? 'This is violent, anarchic American history with echoes of Sebastian Barry's Days Without End, but Paddy Crewe's take is startlingly original... Yip's tale is immersive and beautiful in unexpected places. On the strength of this sensational debut, you will be hearing a lot more about Paddy Crewe.' Antonia Senior, The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month

Manolete, last of the great Apache chiefs, has broken out of the reservation, and terror sweeps southern Arizona. Ranchers scramble for their weapons in the certainty that Manolete and his braves will now seek a terrible revenge. In a small town in the path of the Apaches, eleven-year-old Katy Malone and her widowed mother are living a quiet life when a cavalry officer rides into their world. On the eve of retirement, Colonel Red McGregor pauses for a moment to water his horse, but a freckled face and a sudden smile stop him and change his life forever. Apacheria is the tale of a fatherless little girls longing and love, and of two old enemies and their final confrontation at the frontiers of humanity.

Phil Hunt is deep in trouble. For twenty years he's lived in Washington State, raising horses with his wife on his small farm and trying to stay clear of the law. But when a less-than-legal side job goes horribly wrong, Hunt is suddenly on the run from two men: Drake, the deputy sheriff who intends to incarcerate him, and Grady, the vicious hitman with a knife fetish who means to carve him limb from limb.
An explosive chase ensues, and Hunt is forced to use all his willpower and toughness to rescue his quiet life and save his skin. Headlong and gorgeously written, with memorable characters and a vividly powerful sense of place, The Terror of Living marks the arrival of a new master of narrative suspense.

Tom Calvert and his family have come to Texas from Virginia to escape the prejudicial attitude of Virginia aristocrats. Duty to a friend will compel Tom to leave the Bar T. Jamie Blanchard, the young man hired to help Tom's family leaves in search of Glory. Both men face the horrors of the American Civil War on separate fronts. Jack Calvert, Tom's son, waits for their return. Fate will deal Jack a cruel hand and it will send him on a journey for justice. Jack's quest will take him to Lookout Texas where he will find love and a challenge that will test more than his skills with a gun.

An intense trip across many miles of harsh territory looking for killers that have gone unchecked for years and the one man that would track them down makes this book very interesting to the reader, also the bonus of a second short story about cattle rustling which exists even in present times, makes for exciting thoughts on how the story ends.

A thrill-a minute ride set in the days of Spanish colonialism in California, where thugs and greedy tyrants try to wrest every penny from peasants . . . and the one hero who defends the common man is the mysterious masked stranger who calls himself Zorro--The Fox The first Zorro story appeared as a 5-part serial in All-Story Weekly, a famous American pulp fiction magazine, starting in the August 9, 1919 issue. In a case of fortunate timing, Douglas Fairbanks, the silent movie star, was in the process of trying to change his image at the time, and he chose Zorro as his next starring role. In 1920, when the romantic swashbuckler debuted, it set movie box office records. Riot police had to disperse the huge crowds that showed up at the New York opening. Zorro entered the public consciousness and is now a part of popular culture, the same as such heroes as Superman, Tarzan, and The Lone Ranger. The rest is history.