Tom Atkins is out of work. So when the Norden brothers ride into his camp one night and offer him a job, he figures he might as well accept. The Norden boys are nice enough and they just bought a small ranch nearby. All things considered, Atkins could do worse. But gradually, as time goes by, Atkins begins to notice things. Small things, but troubling. Some of the folks in town don't seem too friendly to anyone from the Norden ranch. And some of their neighbors are downright rude and insul...

Out on a ranch in the foothills, Jim Lander is trying to get his life in order. He's trying to put his divorce behind him so he can develop a relationship with Dusty, a nice young woman who lives in town. Things get complicated, though, when he doesn't resist temptations at the Trail's End, his favorite honky-tonk bar. To sort things out, he goes to the mountains. But even then, it takes the right combination to get things into balance. Nothing comes easy, but it is possible to find a good...

With a lot of rustling going on in the area, tensions are high and rumors are flying. Word is going around that some of the larger ranchers have hired a gunman named Wolf Carlton to stop the rustling and protect their cattle. And now a couple of the small ranchers have been found shot to death. Unfortunately for Spencer Prescott, some of the rumors are about him. Some people think that Spencer, not Wolf, is the one killing the competition. Even worse, some folks think Spencer is behind the...

When Wilf Kasmire is asked to guide some hunters on a newcomer’s ranch, he doesn’t think anything is up. After all, he wants to try to make a living as a guide and outfitter so he can enjoy the outdoor life he loves. As he goes about his work, he is nagged by the disappearance of a young woman he used to spend time with, and no one seems to be trying very hard to find her. Ultimately, the two questions come together: does Wilf want to keep on selling the gifts of nature to arrogant clients...

Braden isn't looking for trouble. He is just a ranch hand, out looking for stray horses. But trouble finds him. He hears about someone doing something pretty low and getting away with it, and it starts to work on his mind. Then the man who told him is found dead. Lots of folks would just turn away from it, forget about it and move on. But Braden isn't most folks. No, he has to look into it a little. That is his first mistake. The more he looks, the more he finds—and the more trouble finds ...

Stories of a Golden WestSomewhere between John Steinbeck and Merle Haggard, these short stories are about people who work in the fields, sleep in cars and bunkhouses, and sort out the problems that life hands them. One character remembers the day Marilyn Monroe died; another runs off with an underage girl; and another finds a hidden rifle in a dead man's house. These people live in a world of young hopes and sad memories, pretty girls and hard work.

TWO NOVELLASDead for the Last TimeIn “Dead for the Last Time,” Larry Sterne is a free-spirited young fellow who comes back to his home town after his first year of college. He learns that an old pedophile has been found dead in an abandoned milk factory and some of his friends are suspected. Before long, one of the friends turns up dead as well. Set in the summer of 1967, this is a nice period piece as well as a genial murder mystery with a serious undertone.Trouble...

This is a book of hard-crafted fiction set in the contemporary West, stories about life and love, loss and death, with a few laughs along the way. In selections such as “Cowboy Heart,” “Ice on the Doorstep,” “Chokecherries Are Free,” “Drunk on Christmas Day,” and “Dusk on the Rangeland,” the book captures the spirit of people who tough it out in a world both modern in its problems and timeless in its landscape. This collection has all the fine features that have won praise for John D. Nesb...

JOHN D. NESBITT FOUR - TIME WINNER OF THE SPUR AWARDEdward Dawes is a small boy when a stranger comes to call and shoots down his grandfather. Ed remembers what the assassin looked like. Years later, working in a blacksmith shop, Ed sees the man, learns his name, and finds out he works for a rancher named Mort Ramsey.Ed learns to do ranch work so he can work his way into that world. He meets an old drunk who knows a great deal, and he meets a girl named Ravenna, who is an o...

Blue Is Not the WordRick Lemoore is drinking beer when he recognizes a backhoe operator named Tragg Tustin, who was said to have left town years earlier with Lynette Cole, a girl both of them had been dating. Seeing Tustin in town again, with a different woman, makes Rick wonder what ever happened to Lynette. Rick’s curiosity picks up when he sees Tustin out driving the unpaved roads in the grasslands where Rick goes antelope hunting. Rick follows him for a while and watches from a...

When Tip Creston comes to the town of Greenwood, he learns of the disappearance of a fifteen-year-old Romanian girl ten years earlier. Before long, a neighboring wheat farmer is found dead. Suspicion falls on a rancher who has been carrying on with the farmer’s wife, but there is no compelling motive. Then Tip learns that the wheat farmer was in collusion with the owner of the grain elevator to embezzle wheat.The disconsolate boyfriend of the missing girl is obsessed with the case ...

Vance Coolidge always said a man should have a chance to get even when he's been done wrong. And he's certainly been done wrong in his life. So when his friend Tip asked for his help in going after the men who killed Tip's brother, Vance agreed to join him. But Vance doesn't completely trust some of the other men riding with them, and as the chase wears on he'll find out that vengeance and righting wrongs can be a tricky—and dangerous—business.