Overrun by hard-bitten miners, gamblers, and the kind of no-account drifters that follow the gold camps, Basin City is a place where no respectable citizen feels safe. That's why three of the town's foremost businessmen have gone and hired a new marshal. Tomorrow he'll be in charge of protecting a stagecoach carrying over a quarter million dollars in gold as it moves out of the Basin City depot. Tonight he'll be defending his life.

Cattle rancher Ben Kerr wants Jim and Jack Casady's prime farmland real bad. He's offered them good money, but they won't sell. When the Casady brothers find Kerr's cattle grazing on their land, surrounded by broken fences, anger rises up like bile in Jack Casady's gut, and tempers flare.

The gallows are going up in Canyon Gap and wild-spirited Leo Carver is going to swing. A known troublemaker without an alibi, Leo certainly had motives for holding up the stage and killing two men, yet he still proclaims his innocence. There's a lot of folks who want to believe him, because although Leo Carver is a hard-living, free-spending maverick, he is the kind of man the West needs.

"One for the Mohave Kid": Few men were as deadly - or troublesome - with a gun as the Mohave Kid. Ab Kale, marshal of Hinkley, had warned the Kid to stay away from his town. "Lonigan": Ruth Gurney arrived home to find her late father’s cattle ranch in debt, and their trail-boss, Lonigan, missing. As luck would have it, there is a conveniently available replacement - Hoey Ives. "War Party": Bud Miles was a boy when he crossed the Mississippi. But Bud buried his father after an Indian attack, and as the wagon train pushed on through Sioux country, the boy stood as tall as any man....

Four Card Draw - Allen Ring won the Red Rock Ranch in a poker game. But a man was shot in the back there a couple of years back. The murder is still unsolved, but someone seems convinced that Allen Ring has the missing answer. Ross Bilton was one of the men who found the body, and now he's the town marshall. Ring finds himself in the middle of a mysterious conflict–and maybe headed for a showdown with the marshall.

Cattlemen ride alone across the open range under the deadly aim of roving desperadoes.... Gamblers stake their fortunes and their lives on a deck of cards.... Strong-willed señoritas seek independence through an enticing combination of beauty, audacity, and spirit.... Lawmen and outlaws walk the same dusty streets and speak a common language: Colt, Winchester, Smith & Wesson.

When Miguel Merrano first came to Mirror Valley, the land was green and lush...and off limits to Mexicans. Ranchers such as Tom Drake and Joe Stangle tried to drive Merrano out, to fence him out; and when he warned them that greed and overgrazing would ruin their land, they refused to listen.

"The Strong Shall Live": When they burned his home, he rebuilt it. When they shot at him, he shot back. But now the man they call Cavagan is in the worst bind of his life. "Keep Travelin', Rider": After an absence of several years, Tack Gentry heads home to his Uncle John's G-Bar Ranch. But when he arrives, the entire town has changed. What's more, strangers have taken over the G-Bar. "Strawhouse Trail": On a seldom-used smugglers' trail between Mexico and Austin, a man lies dying. Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie takes the stranger's body to Valverde, the nearest town.

Life on an Ohio farm couldn't hold young Bill Carey. He wanted the adventure he knew waited in the territories to the west. He'd drifted into the outlaw life and found himself shot up, a lawman on his trail, holed up on a small farm near the lair of Tabat Ryerson. Ryerson, the man who'd introduced him to cattle rustling and bank robbery, was a cold-blooded killer, the man who'd turned the sweet young woman who'd saved Carey's life into an unwilling accomplice.

Tough and vicious, the Fred Henry Gang had been robbing banks all along the stage route from Santa Fe to Tularosa. It was only a matter of time before they hit the sleepy town of Sentinel, and Marshal Fitz Moore knew that day had come.

"Man Riding West": Jim Gary had always tried to avoid trouble, but after he is forced to kill a Mexican gunman in a cantina showdown, trouble seems to seek him out. "Grub Line Rider": Most folks would call Kim Sartain an easygoing, peace-loving man, but the few who crossed the young drifter know there is nothing he likes better than a good fight. "Down the Pogonop Trail": Jeff Kurland didn’t have a gun; he didn’t have a chance. The rancher knew that even as he scanned the cabin for a weapon, any weapon. He was trapped with a killer who had a pistol in his hand and a bounty on his head

"A Trail to the West": Riding under an alias, Bowdrie joins up with Queen’s ruthless gang to rescue the pretty niece of a powerful Texas judge. "Love and the Cactus Kid": Folks far and wide know that the Cactus Kid can handle a pistol with the best of them. But for all his skill and coolness under fire, there’s just one small weakness he can’t seem to overcome.... "Medicine Ground": The Cactus Kid is on his way to the spring dance to meet his best girl, Bess O’Neal. As the Kid ambles through the lonely mountain trail toward town, two men emerge from the darkness - Miguel and Lobo Fernandez, of the menacing Fernandez brothers.

An action-packed story from the popular western anthology, Long Ride Home.

"There's Always a Trail": When a stranger named Handy offered to track down Cass Bailey's stolen money for a stake in the CB range, Bailey has nothing more to lose. "Home in the Valley": Steve Mehan had done the impossible when he drove a herd of cattle from the Nevada range to California in the dead of winter. But Mehan had little time to rest before tragedy struck. "Monument Rock": It had been many years since Lona Markham's father sent her from the rigors of ranch life to a convent school. Now she's returned to a wary, careworn man who hardly seems like the father she remembers.

In a remote corner of Utah lies the secret outlaw kingdom of Ben Curry. For 15 years Curry has ruled supreme, as his men have pulled jobs from Canada to Mexico. But the king is getting old...he wants to turn his legacy over to someone younger, tougher. Mike Bastian is Ben's adopted son, a young man who can handle a knife, a gun, his fists, but a man who's never broken the law. Now, as treachery explodes among Ben's riders, and two honest lawmen - Tyrel Sackett and Borden Chantry - begin to zero in on the gang, Mike must choose....

Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?

Timothy and Jonah, wealthy entrepreneurs with a spoiled son, hide sins from their past—one involving a death on a cruise, the other a crime in Bali. Nathan and Samantha, the hot ex-nanny turned trophy wife, grapple with infertility and a shocking paternity secret. Bartosz and Angelika (he’s a chef, she’s a former sex worker) carry debts to the other couples they don’t even realize they owe. Over fourteen days, the couples bond—but their pasts are too deeply intertwined to stay hidden. The sly concierge, Putu, knows more than he lets on.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

But Jason Asano is settling into his new life. Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone to compete for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he is to stand a chance against the best the world has to offer. While the young adventurers are caught up in competition, the city leaders deal with revelations of betrayal as a vast and terrible enemy is revealed. Although Jason seems uninvolved, he has unknowingly crossed the enemy’s path before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."

Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.

As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.

Every year, Caroline Reed takes a trip with her best friend, Esme Lamont. They’re usually accompanied by their spouses - but this year, everything’s changed. Esme has just gone through a bitter divorce, and Caroline's wondering if her own marriage is reaching its breaking point as she and her husband, John, cope with the discovery that their son has been abusing drugs. Still, the inseparable duo books a weeklong stay at a beach-front home in Shoreham, Florida, inviting Esme’s brother, Nick, and his new husband. After a blissful first night in the vacation home, tragedy strikes.

Overrun by hard-bitten miners, gamblers, and the kind of no-account drifters that follow the gold camps, Basin City is a place where no respectable citizen feels safe. That's why three of the town's foremost businessmen have gone and hired a new marshal. Tomorrow he'll be in charge of protecting a stagecoach carrying over a quarter million dollars in gold as it moves out of the Basin City depot. Tonight he'll be defending his life.

"Medicine Ground" is a short story from L'Amour's hardcover, Valley of the Sun, - previously unavailable anywhere!

The gallows are going up in Canyon Gap and wild-spirited Leo Carver is going to swing. A known troublemaker without an alibi, Leo certainly had motives for holding up the stage and killing two men, yet he still proclaims his innocence. There's a lot of folks who want to believe him, because although Leo Carver is a hard-living, free-spending maverick, he is the kind of man the West needs.

Rock Bannon is a man bred to the Colt and the rugged law of frontier survival. But to a group of naive homesteaders, his reputation as a gunfighter marks him as an outcast among decent folk. So when a smooth-talking scoundrel comes to camp, no one is ready to listen to Bannon's warning. He alone knows that Mort Harper's route leads to certain massacre. Now it is up to Bannon to protect the greenhorn settlers - especially the beautiful Sharon Crockett - and convince them of the truth about Harper before it is too late. For even if the wagon train survives the hostile Indians and desert ahead, it is bound for Bishop's Valley and a vicious land war.

Cattle rancher Ben Kerr wants Jim and Jack Casady's prime farmland real bad. He's offered them good money, but they won't sell. When the Casady brothers find Kerr's cattle grazing on their land, surrounded by broken fences, anger rises up like bile in Jack Casady's gut, and tempers flare.

Pelona was a strange town, and Ward McQueen was a stranger to it. The stalawart foreman of the Tumbling K had come to the high country to take possession of the Firebox range. But the sight that greeted him when he arrived was an ugly one: the battle-scarred cabin and bullet-ridden body of its former owner. It was clear that young Jimmy McCracken had gone out fighting: his killers left behind a trail of blood. Now McQueen has followed that trail straight into Pelona.

"There's Always a Trail": When a stranger named Handy offered to track down Cass Bailey's stolen money for a stake in the CB range, Bailey has nothing more to lose. "Home in the Valley": Steve Mehan had done the impossible when he drove a herd of cattle from the Nevada range to California in the dead of winter. But Mehan had little time to rest before tragedy struck. "Monument Rock": It had been many years since Lona Markham's father sent her from the rigors of ranch life to a convent school. Now she's returned to a wary, careworn man who hardly seems like the father she remembers.

Cattlemen ride alone across the open range under the deadly aim of roving desperadoes.... Gamblers stake their fortunes and their lives on a deck of cards.... Strong-willed señoritas seek independence through an enticing combination of beauty, audacity, and spirit.... Lawmen and outlaws walk the same dusty streets and speak a common language: Colt, Winchester, Smith & Wesson.

Where the real frontier begins...A young cowpuncher stakes a claim that can only be sealed with fists and a .44 Colt.... A gunfighter, tired of violence, finds himself pushed down a trail of bloody revenge.... From purple sage to gambler's gold, from a senorita's tempting smile to a splash of blood in the dust, here are stories with a distinctive L'Amour twist.

A quiet farmer defends his honor in a moment of panic and luck...only to find true courage on the run from the dead man's brothers.

Tough and vicious, the Fred Henry Gang had been robbing banks all along the stage route from Santa Fe to Tularosa. It was only a matter of time before they hit the sleepy town of Sentinel, and Marshal Fitz Moore knew that day had come.

Jeff Kurland didn't have a gun. Jeff Kurland didn't have a chance. The rancher knew that even as he scanned the cabin for a weapon, any weapon. He was trapped with a killer who had a pistol in his hand and a bounty on his head. And outside, the pogonip swirled and fell, an icy blanket of fog that settled like a shroud over every living thing. Death would creep into the cabin with the bone-chilling cold or slice through him with the speed of a bullet. Either way, time was running out: for both of them.

"Man Riding West": Jim Gary had always tried to avoid trouble, but after he is forced to kill a Mexican gunman in a cantina showdown, trouble seems to seek him out. "Grub Line Rider": Most folks would call Kim Sartain an easygoing, peace-loving man, but the few who crossed the young drifter know there is nothing he likes better than a good fight. "Down the Pogonop Trail": Jeff Kurland didn’t have a gun; he didn’t have a chance. The rancher knew that even as he scanned the cabin for a weapon, any weapon. He was trapped with a killer who had a pistol in his hand and a bounty on his head

"One for the Mohave Kid": Few men were as deadly - or troublesome - with a gun as the Mohave Kid. Ab Kale, marshal of Hinkley, had warned the Kid to stay away from his town. "Lonigan": Ruth Gurney arrived home to find her late father’s cattle ranch in debt, and their trail-boss, Lonigan, missing. As luck would have it, there is a conveniently available replacement - Hoey Ives. "War Party": Bud Miles was a boy when he crossed the Mississippi. But Bud buried his father after an Indian attack, and as the wagon train pushed on through Sioux country, the boy stood as tall as any man....

Four Card Draw - Allen Ring won the Red Rock Ranch in a poker game. But a man was shot in the back there a couple of years back. The murder is still unsolved, but someone seems convinced that Allen Ring has the missing answer. Ross Bilton was one of the men who found the body, and now he's the town marshall. Ring finds himself in the middle of a mysterious conflict–and maybe headed for a showdown with the marshall.

This set contains four thrilling dramatizations of Louis L'Amour's short stories, featuring all the excitement of the authentic West, the fierce passion and determination of the men and women who dared to tame the rugged terrain and call it their home, the villains who threaten their dreams, and all those who sought their own destinies across a vast western landscape.