Now Available: Brothers By the Gun (Samaria, Kansas #4) - David Hardy

The Denning gang has just pulled off the biggest robbery of their careers. But Josh Denning, the leader of the bunch, faces a deadly challenge from within the ranks of his own followers, and his brother Ike has a bullet in him that may cost him his life. On top of that, two tough, dogged lawmen are on the gang's trail, determined to bring the outlaws to justice. It's a perilous race to safety for these fast-gun owlhoots! 

BROTHERS BY THE GUN is another exciting tale of Samaria, Kansas from talented author David Hardy. Fast-paced and full of gritty action, this is a story that fans of traditional Westerns won't want to miss!

(This is the fourth and final--for now--story in Dave Hardy's Samaria, Kansas series. These are great stories, gritty, hardboiled Western tales, and I recommend all of them. A print collection of all four stories is in the works, for those of you who prefer that format. Check 'em out!)

Now Available: Last Chance Canyon - James Reasoner

Only desperate men dared to venture into Last Chance Canyon, like bounty hunter Rye Callahan and the deadly outlaw he pursued. The fate that awaited them inside the lonely box canyon was something neither man could have anticipated, and the question was whether either of them would make it out alive!

One of my Western short stories that's never been published in English before is now available exclusively at Amazon in an e-book edition. A big thank you to Juri Nummelin for making this possible. This is also the first of my e-books where I designed the cover. As many of you know, Livia broke her arm a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to see if I could publish one of our projects by myself. As it turned out, she did have to give me a little help and advice on the cover, but it's mostly my design. I hadn't read this story in many years, but I think it holds up pretty well and is an entertaining Weird Western yarn. I hope some of you will check it out and enjoy it.

LAST CHANCE CANYON on Amazon

Now Available from Rough Edges Press: Fast Track - Ed Gorman and Bill Crider

Dev Mallory has been a Secret Service agent, a detective, and a cowboy...which makes him the perfect man for the job of protecting a British nobleman's Thoroughbred race horse and saving the U.S. government from embarrassment. But there's more going on than sabotage, as Dev's beautiful redheaded partner is kidnapped and Dev finds himself up to his neck in murder, lust, and intrigue.

Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Ed Gorman and Bill Crider team up for this fast-paced Western mystery now available again from Rough Edges Press. Packed with action and colorful characters, FAST TRACK is an adventure novel where the suspense never lets up!

FAST TRACK on Amazon

FAST TRACK on Barnes & Noble

FAST TRACK on Smashwords

Blood Trail of the Horsetooth Widow - Frank Leslie (Peter Brandvold)

Peter  Brandvold's half-breed Western adventurer Yakima Henry returns in the latest release from Mean Pete Press, BLOOD TRAIL OF THE HORSETOOTH WIDOW, a sequel of sorts to the first book in the series, THE LONELY BREED. Written under the Frank Leslie pseudonym, this novel finds Yakima teaming up with the beautiful but deadly Paloma Collado to recover a stolen army payroll after Yakima is forced to shoot Paloma's husband. He doesn't feel particularly guilty about that—the hombre was trying to shoot him, after all—and even less so when it quickly becomes obvious that Paloma isn't mourning her late spouse.

Naturally this quest through Arizona Territory's Chiricahua Mountains and on down into Mexico puts Yakima and Paloma in considerable danger. They have to deal with renegade Apaches, ruthless bandidos, and a deputy U.S. marshal who may or may not have turned outlaw himself. Throw in Paloma's frequent attempts to double-cross just about everybody she meets, and Yakima will be doing good just to get out of this mess alive, let alone get his hands on the hundred grand in hidden loot.

As always in a Brandvold novel, the action scenes are gritty and very well done, the pace seldom lets up, and the setting is rendered vividly. Yakima Henry is a fine hero, plenty tough but with an honorable streak, haunted at times by his past, and a bad man to have for an enemy. There's an unexpected and very effective plot twist late in the book, always a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Brandvold is one of the top Western writers in the business, and BLOOD TRAIL OF THE HORSETOOTH WIDOW just adds to that reputation.

BLOOD TRAIL OF THE HORSETOOTH WIDOW on Amazon.

Starless Midnight - Wayne D. Dundee

On a stormy night in Nebraska, a beautiful young woman in a nightgown runs out in front of a pickup driven by ex-cop and current bar owner Chance Smith, and that sets in motion an action-packed series of events in Wayne D. Dundee's new e-book STARLESS MIDNIGHT. Throw in a couple of troubled marriages, a wealthy older man feuding with his son, an outburst of violence, some sultry sex, and you've got a novelette that reads like a vintage Gold Medal novel in miniature. This is an excellent hardboiled yarn and definitely a one-sitting read because of Dundee's sure hand in pacing the action. Great fun, and highly recommended. You can buy it on Amazon here.

Wind River Free for Kindle

The first book in the Wind River series by Livia and myself, aptly titled WIND RIVER, is free right now for the Kindle. You can grab a copy of it here.

Now Available: Vendetta - Ed Gorman

Peter Madsen became a priest to atone for a life of violence and a wartime tragedy and thought he had put away his gun for good. But then a grief-stricken young woman who's like a daughter to him sets out on a quest of vengeance, and Madsen is forced to take up the gun again as he sets out to save her from herself.

What Madsen doesn't know is that he's about to walk into a dangerous web of tangled emotions—lust, greed, hatred, and more—that will culminate in a shocking crime and a deadly showdown on the dusty street of a frontier town.

This classic novel now available again from Rough Edges Press demonstrates once more why Ed Gorman is one of the most acclaimed Western authors of all time. His tough, spare narrative voice, his painfully human characters, and his sure grasp of storytelling make VENDETTA a compelling reading experience.

VENDETTA is also available for the Nook and on Smashwords.

Now Available: Livin' on Jacks and Queens - Robert J. Randisi, ed.

Legendary western writer and noted anthologist Robert J. Randisi offers up a winning hand with fourteen never-before-published tales of the Old West, each revolving around the central theme of gambling. Among the stories you can expect to be dealt here are:

Jacks or Better by Johnny Boggs
A Cold Deck by Phil Dunlap
The Reckoning by Randy Lee Eickhoff
It Takes a Gambler by Jerry Guin
Odds on a Lawman by Christine Matthews
Pay the Ferryman by Matthew P. Mayo
White Face, Red Blood by Rod Miller
Hazard by Nik Morton
Acey Deucy by John Nesbitt
The Mark of an Imposter: An Evelyn Page/Calvin Carter Adventure by Scott Parker
Horseshoe and Pistols by Robert J. Randisi
Too Many Aces by Charlie Steel
Missouri Boat Race by Chuck Tyrell
The Legend of ‘Blind Ned’ Baldwin by Lori Van Pelt

(That's a fine line-up of authors. I'm looking forward to reading this one.)

Now Available: Trouble Man - Ed Gorman (and an Announcement)

Ray Coyle hadn't been a real gunfighter for ten years, and that was the way he liked it. He would have been content to live out his life as a performer in a Wild West show. But then he got the news that his son was dead, killed in suspicious circumstances, and so Coyle set out to discover the truth.

Coopersville was a town full of secrets, most of them ugly. Brutal ex-convict Harry Winston knows those secrets, many of them involving the wealthy Trevor family. And Harry wants not only money but also revenge on the Trevors. His plans are complicated by the arrival of Ray Coyle, who has a score of his own to settle with one of the Trevors . . . and for anybody to get what they want, blood will have to be spilled.

Master storyteller Ed Gorman spins a dark, compelling tale of greed, lust, and murder in TROUBLE MAN, one of the best Western noir novels ever written, now available again from Rough Edges Press. Powerful, tragic, and deeply compassionate, Gorman's critically acclaimed stories and novels have made him one of today's leading authors of Western, crime, suspense, and horror fiction. 

This is one of Ed's best novels, and those of you who haven't read it should check it out. Also, the eagle-eyed among you may notice that it's published by Rough Edges Press. "Who?" you ask. Well, me. I'm Rough Edges Press. Although in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm just the editorial end. Livia's still handling all the heavy lifting when it comes to the technical stuff. But I've been thinking about starting a small press even since before the so-called e-book revolution, and now I have.

What's coming up from Rough Edges Press? More reprints of Ed Gorman Western novels, for one thing. A collection of Western pulp stories from a well-known author, for another. I'm also talking to various authors about some crime, suspense, horror, and science fiction novels, both originals and reprints. The submission requirements for Rough Edges Press are really simple: Stuff I Like. Any genre, any length (although I'd prefer not to publish anything less than novella-length, I won't rule it out entirely). Fast-moving stuff with some action. If you have a book like that you control the rights to, or a new manuscript that would fit, send me an email. The address is in my profile, if you don't already have it.

Meanwhile, Ed's TROUBLE MAN is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, and it's a great yarn.

Now Available in an E-Book Edition: The Ghost With Blue Eyes - Robert J. Randisi

One of Bob Randisi's best books, THE GHOST WITH BLUE EYES, is now available in an e-book edition. This is the first book in his excellent series about the gunfighter known as Lancaster, and it's a favorite of mine. If you enjoy a fast-moving, offbeat Western novel, check it out.

 

Sons and Gunslicks - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

It was a wandering daughter job.

That's a classic set-up for hardboiled private eye fiction, and Chap O'Keefe's series character Joshua Dillard is nothing if not a hardboiled private eye in the Old West. In this novel, originally published in hardcover by Robert Hale in 2007 and recently released in an e-book version, freelance troubleshooter and range detective Dillard is hired by elderly former lawman and town tamer Jack Greatheart to find Greatheart's daughter Emily, who disappeared during a trip to Arizona. Emily was engaged to the son of a widow who owns a large ranch, and after her fiancée was killed in a gunfight before they could even get married, Emily journeyed to Arizona to meet and offer her condolences to the woman who would have been her mother-in-law. She never came back, and a bloodstained coat is the only clue to her disappearance. It's up to Joshua Dillard to find Emily if she's still alive or find out what happened to her if she's not.

Naturally, once Dillard arrives on the scene, things turn out to be even more complicated and mysterious than they appear on the surface. There's a range war brewing, and Dillard has to survive gunfights, fistfights, and bushwhackings before he's able to untangle the various strands of the plot and uncover the truth of Emily Greatheart's disappearance.

As usual, Chap O'Keefe (who's really veteran author and editor Keith Chapman, as most of you already know) spins this tale in terse, no-nonsense prose and skillfully throws in enough plot twists to keep things racing along to a powerful climax. Joshua Dillard is a fine character, a dogged investigator who's plenty tough when he needs to be, and his own tragic background adds a touch of poignancy to his adventures. I've probably said this before, but fifty years ago these books would have made good Gold Medal paperbacks or Double D hardbacks.

As an added bonus in this one, O'Keefe includes an informative essay about the links between Western and detective fiction. If you're a fan of those genres, SONS AND GUNSLICKS is well worth reading.

Now Available: War Games (A Markham PI Novella) - James Reasoner

Here's another of my Markham stories from the early days of writing for MSMM. At more than 15,000 words, "War Games" is the longest of the Markham stories and is now available for the Kindle. The other e-formats will be coming along shortly. I'm glad to get these stories back out there, and readers seem to be responding positively to them. They're historical pieces now, but still pretty entertaining, I think. (It's odd to think that a story like this is just as old now as those pulp stories I read in Goulart's THE HARDBOILED DICKS were in 1967.)

Now Available: Shooter York - Colby Jackson (Mel Odom)

Young mountain man Shooter York had been trapping with his cousin George Monk and returned to find his beloved Tennessee home in turmoil as the US Army enforced the Indian Removal Act in 1833.

Shooter hadn't agreed with the proposed action, but it hit even closer to home than he realized when a friend of his got caught up in the middle of it. Moon Bear was accused of killing an Army transport crew and of taking rifles.

After helping the Army find Moon Bear, Shooter learned that his friend was looking for his son, who was following Calling Owl, a renegade leader conducting raids on helpless settlers. Shooter and George had no choice but to free Moon Bear and take up the hunt. But with the US Army on their heels and riding into the teeth of dangerous renegades, Tennessee seemed more crowded than ever.

(As you can tell from the cover, this book is connected to the Rancho Diablo series, but since it's a prequel, you don't have to have read any of the others before this one.)

Two New Titles from the Western Fictioneers Library

Two new titles are now available from the Western Fictioneers Library. A DISGRACE TO THE BADGE AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES is the second collection of short Western fiction from Ed Gorman. You all know how good Ed's stories are. STAMPEDE AT RATTLESNAKE PASS is another exciting Jake Scudder adventure from Clay More (Keith Souter). Keith always packs these yarns not only with action but also intriguing plot twists and colorful characters. This one also features a great scene with a rattlesnake that I don't think I've ever encountered in another Western novel. Both of these books get high recommendations from me (and not just because I helped edit 'em).

Now Available: Death and the Dancing Shadows - James Reasoner

Retired cowboy movie star Eliot "Lucky" Tremaine has a problem: he's being blackmailed. Markham seems to be the only one who can help him, but when blackmail explodes into murder, it's Markham's life on the line!

"Death and the Dancing Shadows" is another classic tale of California private eye Markham from the pages of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE and the imagination of bestselling author James Reasoner. This 9,000 word novella was originally published in the March 1980 issue of MSMM and later reprinted in THE BLACK LIZARD ANTHOLOGY OF CRIME FICTION.

I've always been fond of this one. I think it's particularly well-plotted, if I do say so myself. The Amazon link is below, and it's also available on Smashwords and for the Nook. Like all the Markham stories, it's a stand-alone, so if you haven't read the others you can start here with no problem. The excellent cover is by Livia, as always.

Now Availbable: Red River Ruse - James Reasoner and L.J. Washburn

Lawyer Billy Cambridge, a retired Texas Ranger, and his best friend, vaquero and ranch foreman Nacho Graves, set out by stagecoach from Pecos, Texas, to deliver $20,000 in cash to a client in Fort Smith, Arkansas. When the stagecoach is held up and Cambridge and Nacho lose the twenty grand, they set out on a dangerous quest to recover the money and bring the outlaws to justice . . . a quest that leads them to beautiful women, cold-blooded killers, the last Comanchero, and more surprises than they're ready to face. RED RIVER RUSE is a fast-moving Western novel packed with action, emotion, and danger, from two of the best in the business, award-winning, bestselling authors James Reasoner and L.J. Washburn. Originally published by M. Evans in 1991.

Livia and I collaborated on this traditional Western novel, but she had the contract and I didn't, so it was published under the L.J. Washburn name. We're happy to have it available for the first time under both names, in a new e-book edition. This is sort of a sideways sequel to my Stagecoach Station novel PECOS (published by Bantam under the house-name Hank Mitchum). Some of the characters are the same, even though they have different names. I just read this one for the first time in more than twenty years and liked it even more than when we wrote it. Check it out if you enjoy an exciting, somewhat offbeat Western novel.

Now Available: The Man in the Moon: A Markham, P.I. Novella - James Reasoner

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Back in the prehistoric days of my career, I wrote several stories about a private detective named Markham. "The Man in the Moon" is a 10,000 word novella that appeared in the April 1980 issue of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE, and it's been out of print ever since. The Kindle version of it has just gone live on Amazon, appropriately enough for Father's Day since two fathers figure prominently in the plot. A Nook version is in the works as well. If you've read and enjoyed my Cody stories, you should like the Markham yarns as well. The other stories in the series will be available in the relatively near future.

Robert J. Randisi Westerns on Sale at Amazon

All these Western e-books by Bob Randisi are on sale at Amazon right now for either $1.99 or $2.99, depending on the book. Lots of great reading here for a very affordable price, and they'd make great Father's Day gifts, too!

Now Available: Look You on Beauty and Death - James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn

Despite my love for the genre, Livia and I haven't made many forays into sword and sorcery. This short story is one of them, and I think it's a pretty good one. We wrote it a while back for an anthology called NEW AMAZONS, which was edited by Margaret Weis. "Look You on Beauty and Death" has got swordplay, an evil wizard, a little humor, and a few plot twists. We've gone through it, revising it and expanding it some from its original version. I hope those of you who like heroic fantasy will check it out. It's only 99 cents for 7,000 words of action.

I have an unpublished fantasy novel sitting in my files, but it's going to take a considerable amount of work before it's ready to see the light of day. I expect to have it available as an e-book, too, sooner or later.

Coming Soon: West of the Big River: The Lawman - James Reasoner

My newest Western novel will be out soon. THE LAWMAN is the first book in the West of the Big River series, published by Western Fictioneers. This is going to be a fine series of new short novels based on historical figures and incidents from the Old West, with a great line-up of contributing authors including Robert J. Randisi, Michael Newton, Jackson Lowry, Frank Roderus, Bill Crider, Matthew P. Mayo, James J. Griffin, and many others. You can read about this and all the other Western Fictioneers publishing projects on the WF blog.