A brutalized woman is left for dead. But dead is the one thing she isn't. With a stolen horse and rifle, she escapes into the mountains, and a small posse of her tormentors has to gear up and give chase--whether to beg forgiveness or shut her up for good, nobody knows. With detours through time, space and myth--not to mention into the minds of a pack of philosophical mules--Pity the Beast is a mind-melting feminist Western that pins a tale of sexual violence and vengeance to a canvas as wide and strange as America itself. It's a novel that turns our assumptions about the West, masculinity, good and evil, and the very nature of storytelling onto their heads, with an eye to the cosmic as well as the comic. It urges us to write our stories anew--if we want to avoid becoming beasts ourselves.

The Blue Ridge is of the Western genre which starts in the late eighteen hundreds in Texas and moves to Colorado. The Blue Ridge is on the northern side of the canyon carved by the Colorado River as it runs toward Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The story of the Buhler family and its feud with the Toms family runs throughout the story. After David Buhler dies his widow, Ruth, marries Dan Toms. After the first year of marriage Dan begins abusing Ruth and her two sons, Brett and Barney. The abuse reaches a point where Dan Toms beats Ruth so badly that the younger boy, Barney, puts a butcher knife into Dan killing him almost instantly. The older boy Brett buries Dan with all his belongings and no one else knows what has happened to Dan as Ruth is unconscious. Dan's disappearance festers with the Toms brothers especially the eldest, Sheriff Bob Toms, as he suspects that the Buhler boys knows what happened to Dan. Tom Mason, a retired U. S. Marshal, meets Ruth as she and the boys put their farm up for sale. The story moves at a rapid pace and has several romances laced through the story giving it spice. The five Toms brothers add excitement as does the goldmine adventures that both the Buhler/Mason and Toms family encounter.

In the autumn of 1858, on the prairies of Central Illinois, Lycurgus (Surge) Sherwood has been more concerned with the day to day business of his farm in Marshall County than with the runaway slaves that filter up the Dixon Trail on the Underground Railroad. But when his sister is ruthlessly murdered by Mississippi bounty hunters Surge suddenly finds himself embroiled in the clandestine and unlawful Freedom Train.

As outlaw Jake Leach lies dying in a deserted cave, he writes a desperate letter to his brother, Tom, a US Marshal. Jake has double-crossed his boss, the violent and vindictive Quirt Evans, stealing eighty thousand dollars' worth of government-owned gold coins from his own outlaw gang in hopes of redemption.

By the time Tom Leach receives Jake's letter, Jake is dead; however, the outlaw left clues that will lead Tom to the stashed gold coins. Jake's final request is for Tom to return the coins to their rightful owner. Maybe then his soul can rest in peace. Tom has his hands full, though, keeping the peace as greedy marauders threaten new settlers in untamed land.

In order to discover Jake's lost gold, Tom must fight his way through outlaws on the wild frontier. As Jake's clues become more convoluted and Quirt's gang moves closer, Tom is forced to forget his lawman ways and act the outlaw himself. Otherwise, he'll end up dead like Jake, and his brother's last indiscretion will linger in eternity.

Preston Wood, whose work has been seen by millions offers an exciting, impressive new novel. The trumpet call of "Gold " shatters Sol Weatherbee's quiet life. The dreams of a nineteen-year-old orphan can come true in the wild gold fields of California. Convinced he has a future there, Sol sets out on the adventure of a lifetime. But California has dangerous surprises in store for him, and his quest for quick riches almost ends in a hangman's noose. Still dreaming of glory, he heads for Mexico. He tangles with the crooks, eccentrics, and the women of a wild and lawless time. Weatherbee's Gold is told with boisterous style and humor, a sharp and violent look at the frontier its restless seekers.

Nan is a member of an outlaw family -- the Morgans of Morgan's Gap -- a band whose daring exploits of lawlessness have held all the valley in subjection and terror for years. Henry de Spain, the general manager of Thief River Stage Line, has been hired to subdue the Morgans and restore peace and order. The intensely exciting events that follow -- de Spain's strategy, his night pursuits and captures, his hand-to-hand combats, and the whole thrilling story of his war on the outlaws (always interwoven with his growing love for Nan) make a epic tale that may well be called the masterpiece of Frank H. Spearman's career.

Frank Hamilton Spearman (1859-1937) was an American author, best known for his Western fiction and his fiction and nonfiction writing about railroads. His best known work remains the novel "Whispering Smith."

Rifle closed the book and lay it in his coat. He unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it over his shoulders. He walked to the front of the wagon and sat on the axle to remove his boots. He set them under the canvas and laid his shirt across them. In the dark he removed his trousers and slipped into the still warmth below the wagon. He lifted the quilt he d spread there and crawled under it. He closed his eyes and waited. So silently did the canvas flap move behind him, he would not have known it had parted except he felt a cool, fresh breeze from outside the shelter. He felt the quilt lift and the overwhelming warmth which joined him from behind. An arm slipped around his waist and lips touched the back of his neck. That s one, the voice whispered. That one doesn t count, Rifle said. They only count above the chin and below the waist. He turned in Edward s arms and kissed him deeply. I ll have to teach you everything, I m afraid. I learn quickly. Rifle felt the tightness of their loins and the urgency building between then. The first lesson begins Don t talk. Nothing else was said before the morning. "Woodward's historical fiction, Symmetry, the story of Rifle McCormack, a half Cherokee, half Irish man, ...brings tenderness, romance and love to a tumultuous time. Rifle's community is torn apart in the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Nation relocation in the early 1800s. Rifle lives in two worlds. In one he is Cherokee, sharing the heritage, traditions and ways of his people. In another he is white, or 'yoneg' as the Cherokee say, where he reads Shakespeare and poetry, serves as a diplomat to all and falls in love with another white man. Lieutenant Edward Hatcher...is intrigued by the Cherokee and unlike most other soldiers, he fights to move his group quickly to the new territory, with as few deaths as possible. Although Woodward's book is fictional, his ability to bring in a historical era makes...Symmetry...a genuinely moving romance that brings a different perspective to historical times. As the title suggests, it is a story about the balance of two worlds. It is about two men who fall in love, who are not always accepted, do not belong fully to any group, and who bring to life, sweetness and genuine hearts to an otherwise challenging and painful time." Christina Claassen Copyright 2005 ForeWordreviews.com

Independence Day, 1871. The Civil War is finished, but in "Bleeding Kansas," old wounds heal slowly. The shooting started in Kansas long before Ft. Sumter, and if some men have their way, it will continue, even six years after Appomattox Court House. Crill Falkner, a volunteer Union infantryman from New York, has come west to forget the war, and to try to leave behind the anguish he found at home after the fighting was done. With the help of Bonnie Little, an English widow whose travels, like his, have halted in Kansas, he has made the small town of Marietta his home. And he has reluctantly accepted the lawman's badge the town fathers pressed upon him. Alexander Chastain, a former Confederate guerilla and veteran of the border wars, is known to the residents of Marietta as Bernard Smith. He has come to town to settle a score. Chastain continued the fight against the hated free-soilers after the peace was signed. Due largely to the efforts of Crill Falkner, Chastain came to grief at Marietta in 1866, losing several men in the process, and more to the point, a large measure of his pride. He has kept his head down for a while, but now it's time to have another go at the Redlegs and their Yankee lawman. Falkner may have come out on top the first time they butted heads, but things are about to change.

Features the first three SURGE novels: Round Prairie Inferno, Senachwine Crossing and Four Cedars. Action and adventure set in the era of The House Divided. Second generation Illinois settler, Lycurgus Sherwood has been more concerned with the day to day business of his farm in Marshall County than he has with the numerous runaway slaves filtering up the Dixon Trail on the Underground Railroad. When his sister and her husband are ruthlessly murdered by Mississippi bounty hunters Surge is transformed. Includes a special introduction and map by the author.

She wore high heels and a .45 automatic, a tailored suit dress with a badge engraved SHERIFF pinned under the lapel.

She had an explosive temper and a glare that could split rocks, and she had light eyes, pale eyes, the color of a glacier's heart -- just like her ancestor, her Great-Great-Grandfather, the second Sheriff of Firelands County, Colorado.

When her husband found the Old Sheriff's personal journal in a hidden compartment of their roll top desk, Sheriff Willamina found a door through which she could step, a door that led to another world, another time.

Follow the Sheriff from the Northern Ohio farm country through the war that tore the young nation apart, through dirty little coal mining towns and corrupt Kansas villages, aboard steam boat and a plow horse, until a final confrontation with a corrupt official shows Sheriff Willamina Keller that she is cut of the same violent, uncompromising cloth as her pioneering ancestor."

After ten years on the Texas cattle trail with little to show for it, twenty-six-year-old Clinton James heads west in hopes of striking it rich in the California gold fields. Lady, his salt-and-pepper gray, is getting old; he knows this will be her last drive. Riding into the dusty little town of Bitter Creek, James is broke, out of grub, and he has to find work-quickly.

While wondering if he made the right decision, Clinton meets the first of many people along the western trail who will forever mark his life-from the greedy merchants who would readily take advantage of him, to the old stockman who tells Clinton of the riches to be had at the Lost Ravine Gold Mine, and a beautiful young woman with a little girl, both stranded after losing their belongings and their families.

Clinton's journey to the Lost Ravine Gold Mine, one of the richest strikes around, is a lonely trail with danger waiting around every bend, where a lone rider could disappear and never be missed. Will James make it to the gold fields, or will romantic escapades and ruthless outlaws force him to abandon his dream?

Sam Heggarty returns home to hunt for the gunmen who robbed and executed his father. As he makes his way back, he witnesses another murder and stumbles across a clue to the people responsible for his father's death. Sam becomes caught up in the chase to track down an escaped prisoner as he partners up with ageing lawman, County Sheriff Lewis Leeming. He discovers that the one person who may hold the key to the identity of his father's murderers is someone that everyone else is intent on killing. Heggarty will have to save the life of a man involved in his father's death.