The romance of the West is built on an endless armature of shootouts and train robberies, cowboys versus Indians, white hat versus black, and everybody versus the wilderness. From John Colter's harrowing escape from the Blackfeet to Hugh Glass's six week crawl to civilization after a grizzly attack, from Custer's final moments to John Wesley Powell's treacherous run through the rapids of the Grand Canyon, Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears takes the top fifty wildest episode...

First in the gritty, all-action Western series by Spur Award-nominated author Matthew P. Mayo, featuring Roamer, loner with a face everyone fears.Roamer is having a bad day—he is savaged by a grizzly, robbed by bandits, and attacked by wolves. So by the time he makes it to the little Rocky Mountain town of Tall Pine all he wants is a cup of coffee, a hot meal, and a soft bed. The sheriff jails him for murder instead. A seething mob marks Roamer’s homely face as gui...

FUR, FANG & SHADOW A Gritty Press Triple-Shot of Freakish Beasts and the Havoc They Wreak By award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo A Trio of Creepy Creature Short Stories: KIN A viperous attack leads to a death-race like no other…. SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME A shade-creature watches in ...

OUT OF THE FOGA Barbaric Tale of Flench and the FreebooterA Gritty Press Short Story of Barbarous Proportions!By award-winning author Matthew P. MayoIn the tradition of Robert E. Howard … it’s Flench and the Freebooter’s first outing.A stranger—freebooter, lawless adventurer, barbarian—rides into the little market town of Carana early one day, parting the fog on his mas...

His Honor Newland Pontiff III, late of Exeter Territorial Prison, now presides over a vast tract of land with the ambitious town of Cayuse Falls at its center‚ a town he’s confident he can transform into the “Washington of the West,” given enough time. But a demon from his past haunts the horizon, and time is running short. Mason the Mankiller, vigilante hero to the downtrodden, has come out of retirement to settle one last score‚ the only one that ever mattered‚ with a man who l...

THE WITCH HOLE: A Gritty Press Short Story of Ancient Terror by award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo. Who Dares Enter the Lair of No Return?  He is warned — never enter the cave, for it is said that evil dwells there. But he is young and lured by lust. He stumbles forward into the gloom … and finds himself trapped for eternity, the latest guest in a hellish trophy room as old as time itself. And his host? A shamanisti...

TERRIBLE TESS A Gritty Press Short Story of Piracy, Deceit & Madness by award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo. Pirates aren’t the only thing to seize control of the ill-fated vessel…. Yo-ho-ho, buccaneers! It’s a Gritty Press Short Story of Piratical Proportions! Scurvy-ridden marauders have wrested control of the Tess, locked the captain, crew, and young runaway, Corbin, in the hold to wither and d...

For eight years the Winters family has worked hard to live down the nightmare of a bloody range war. Theirs is now a promising ranch on hard-won land in Wyoming’s rugged Rockies. But on the eve of the season’s first snowstorm a stranger slips in, ripping open old wounds, and devolving their lives into a brutal struggle for survival. Niall Winters returns from selling his fall herd to find his ranch a burned ruin, his Uncle Drift dead, his wife missing, and the blizzard covering any clues w...

It’s an aeronautical adventure of high-flying proportions teaming master detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart sidekick, John H. Watson, M.D., with wily French dandy, master thief Arsene Lupin. Are they too late to foil the formidable Lord Ruddy’s murderous scheme? Will a famed French aeronaut’s plans for the ultimate flying machine fall into the clutches of Germany’s notorious Count von Zeppelin?This action-packed novelette is filled with airships, intrigue, murder, swordplay...

BEEN A LONG TIME: Bad vacations never end, they just get worse…. A Gritty Press Short Story of Neverending Torment by award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo   Ready for the vacation of a lifetime? What if it lasted forever … and ever … and ever? He was looking for a vacation, a getaway to fulfill childhood fantasies. He was finally going to be a cowboy. An honest-to-god, fast-...

Get Teague!A Gritty Press Short Story … of Redneck RevengeWhite-trash dimwits Judd and Kurl set out on a drug-fueled mission to track down the man they blame for their addictions — they aim to GET TEAGUE! And they aren’t about to let anyone stop them, until they cross paths with a crusty old mechanic and his baggy full of strange blue powder….Fans of Elmore Leonard’s bumbling baddies and wise-cracking weirdos will find themselves r...

The only thing a man can trust is his gun in this gripping Ralph Compton western....Big for his age, young and impressionable drifter Charlie Chilton is taken in by the gruff leader of a gang of small-time crooks. While Grady Haskell sees something of himself in kindly, wayward Charlie, the ruffian pushes all feelings aside for a potentially big score.When Haskell’s bold daylight bank job in prosperous Bakersfield turns bloody, Charlie attempts to thwart th...