Joshua Buckalew has left behind the deserted battlefields that claimed his brother Thomas. The war has cost him much, but it has also given him a strong bond to the land and to the Mexican families who stood with him against the tyrannies of Santa Anna. Josh is travelling with Ramon Hernandez his best friend and the man who had fought with him, side by side. Where they are going, he isn't quite sure.

Johnny Fristo and Speck Quitman, young, hardworking cowboys from Fort Concho, Texas, have worked six months - at $20 a month - on the Devil's River. Their boss, a hawk-faced cow trader named Larramore, reneges on the money he owes the boys, sneaks out of the cow camp, and heads for San Angelo. Fristo is tall and thin, his mind a hundred miles away; Quitman is short, bandy legged, and "bedazzled by the flash of cards and the slosh of whiskey".

In the early days of the Texas panhandle, starting a new life is hard - but keeping it is even harder. Espy Norwood is a troubleshooter who's got troubles of his own, and more troubles find him when he lands a job on a ranch on the Texas plains. Bitter landowners plot against him, determined cattle thieves sneak right under his nose, and his own son refuses to trust or even know him. Can he catch the thieves, save the ranch, and win his son's love?

Thomas Canfield descends from a line of Texas's earliest settlers. A proud man with a fierce-eyed stare, he inspires the Mexican of Stonehill, Texas to call him el gavilan - "The Hawk". When Branch Isom - an insolent, dangerous newcomer - seeks to build his fortune at Canfield's expense, an all-out feud ensues. Hurtling the town toward a day of reckoning that will shake the entire town to its very roots. Eyes of the Hawk is a classic tale of Western history, told by one of the most critically acclaimed writers of the American West.

Donovan was supposed to be dead. The town of Dry Fork, southern Texas, had buried him years before when Uncle Joe Vickers had fired off both barrels of a shotgun into the vicious outlaw's face as he was escaping from jail. Now Uncle Joe has been shot - in just the same way. And Judge Upshaw had found a noose hanging on his door.

Rancher Blair Bishop of Two Forks, Texas, has too many enemies...and they are closing in on him. Macy Modock, whom Bishop sent to prison 10 years ago, is out of the hoosegow. Modock is returning to Two Forks along with his sidekick, who is known to be a mean gunman. Also arrayed against Bishop is rival cowman Clarence Cass, who is running his animals on Bishop's land. Complicating matters, Cass' daughter, Jessie, and Bishop's son, Allan, are in love.

Mordecai Lewis and his son Michael lead men from Tennessee into Spanish-ruled Texas, to hunt wild horses. The trip is fatal for Mordecai, leaving Michael and his family in danger, both from the soldiers of Spain and the evil Blackwood family back home in the Tennessee hills.

When a ruthless cattle baron and his men destroy Doug Monahan's property, his old friend and mentor is gunned down. Pistol whipped and now flat broke, Monahan finds refuge on the sprawling homestead of Noah Wheeler and his virtuous daughter. But Monahan refuses to quit.

Deputy Sheriff Jim-Bob McClain isn't sure he's ready to follow in his father's footsteps as the law in Coolridge County. In fact he has a hard enough time keeping the peace between the drunks in the local saloon. But with tough Sheriff Mont Naylor to back him up, he figures he can handle whatever comes his way. Jim-Bob's first real assignment is no piece of cake. He must escort a ruthless outlaw into the hands of justice. All seems well with the lawless killer firmly in Jim-Bob's custody. But nothing prepares him for an angry mob determined to take the law into their own hands.

Here are 16 stories, where good meets bad, and everything in between, from the legendary author of the West, Elmer Kelton. Law of the Land chronicles some of his most exciting and dangerous tales of the Old West, collected together for the first time - including the exciting first publication of a never-before published Kelton story, “Biscuits for Bandit”.

One of America's greatest Western storytellers, Elmer Kelton has been voted the greatest Western writers of all time by the Western Writers of America. Dark Thicket is one of his many classic tales of the history of his home state of Texas. Young Owen Danforth rides home to Texas as a wounded Confederate soldier, at a time when his home state is as savagely divided as his nation. As a grievously wounded America staggers toward the inevitable end of the Civil War, secessionist "home guards" and staunch Union loyalists fight their own bloody battles on a more local scale.

As a slave, Isaac Jefford went to war and saved the life of his master, Major Lytton. As a free man, Isaac became one of the major's top cowhands, respected - but never totally accepted - by fellow cowboys: when they gathered around the fire to eat their dinner, Isaac took his food and sat on the wagontongue alone. When Pete Runyan, a bitter southerner, joins the crew, Isaac has to swallow his rage more than once.

Frontier mobster Big Boy Daugherty warns any who'd stand in his way: Get out or die. One man will do neither. Sheriff Dave Buckalew is a man too proud to give up and too stubborn to give in. He liked his town the way it was - before the bootleggers, brothels, and fortune-seeking roustabouts - and so did a lot of other hardworking, decent folk. Together they'll fight to win back their town - and their future. This is the story of their heroic stand.

Thirty years after the Battle of San Jacinto, Texans and Mexicans are still spilling blood over control of the Nueces Strip. And Horse thieves and bushwhackers transform this hot, dry stretch between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers into a lawless inferno. Despite long odds, Captain McNelly and his small band of Texas Rangers strive to bring lasting peace to this swirling vortex of murder and racial hatred.

When Comanches slaughter his parents in 1855 West Texas, eight-year-old Jeff buries their scalped bodies—and the charred remains of his younger brother. Taken in by a homesteading family, Jeff ekes out an existence. But as he dons Confederate gray, he never dreams his brother is alive—or that he’s wearing Union blue.

When Comanches slaughter his parents in 1855 West Texas, eight-year-old Jeff buries their scalped bodies—and the charred remains of his younger brother. Taken in by a homesteading family, Jeff ekes out an existence. But as he dons Confederate gray, he never dreams his brother is alive—or that he’s wearing Union blue.

Joshua Buckalew has left behind the deserted battlefields that claimed his brother Thomas. The war has cost him much, but it has also given him a strong bond to the land and to the Mexican families who stood with him against the tyrannies of Santa Anna. Josh is travelling with Ramon Hernandez his best friend and the man who had fought with him, side by side. Where they are going, he isn't quite sure.

Frontier mobster Big Boy Daugherty warns any who'd stand in his way: Get out or die. One man will do neither. Sheriff Dave Buckalew is a man too proud to give up and too stubborn to give in. He liked his town the way it was - before the bootleggers, brothels, and fortune-seeking roustabouts - and so did a lot of other hardworking, decent folk. Together they'll fight to win back their town - and their future. This is the story of their heroic stand.

Josiah Wolfe quits the Texas Rangers and returns home to find himself in the middle of a family feud. The Langdons and the Halversons have been fighting over land as the townfolk fled after losing out on a railroad junction. Morris Langdon has vowed revenge on Josiah and the Texas Rangers for the hanging of his older brother. The Halverson family holds a grudge against Josiah for leaving with their young grandson. The Texas Rangers are called in to end the feud after the county sheriff is murdered.

By 1873, the great buffalo herds have been all but wiped out, and the hide hunters are looking for other work. So when Gage Jameson hears of one remaining herd, he sees a final opportunity to make a huge profit. But to find the buffalo, he will have to take his line of wagons deep into Comanche territory, where death lurks behind every rock.

Orphaned at fourteen, Hector “Heck” Martin heads west, determined to see the far country and make a man of himself. Along the way, he falls in love with bold and beautiful Hope Mullen. But Heck is too young and poor to marry, so he heads west again. During a three-year journey, Heck crosses thousands of miles, becomes a bareknuckle boxer, a mountain man, and an Indian fighter, and meets the likes of Kit Carson and Jim Bridger as he explores the gorgeous and deadly frontier.

Irishman Doug Monahan runs a fencing crew outside the south Texas town of Twin Wells, digging post-holes and stringing red painted barbed wire for ranchers as protection against wandering stock, rustlers and land hungry thugs. Monahan's fencing operation is opposed by Captain Andrew Rinehart, a former Confederate officer and an old-school open range baron of the huge R Cross spread. With his brutal foreman, Archer Spann, assigned to the violent work, Rinehart wages a barbed wire war against Doug Monahan. And neither side takes prisoners!

Hewey Calloway is between a rock and a hard place: The open range and simple life of his childhood are disappearing. He can't live a cowboy life whose time has passed and he's not ready yet for the new challenges of the 20th century, like automobiles, telephones, and barbed wire fences. He and his friends, all of them good old boys, must learn that even the best choices involve some kind of sacrifice.

National best-selling author and New Mexico native Michael McGarrity takes listeners to the wild territory of the late 19th-century American Southwest for this epic tale. After the deaths of his wife and brother, John Kerney gives up his West Texas ranch and heads south in search of a new home. Soon Kerney is offered work trailing cattle to the New Mexico Territory - a job that will forever change his life.

For decades, Charlie Flagg has eked out a living by raising cattle and sheep on his modest Texas ranch. Hardworking and old-fashioned, he distrusts federal programs that claim to help struggling farmers and ranchers. But as rainless years continue and others sell their souls for federal handouts, Charlie finds himself under increasing pressure to compromise his principles - and surrender his freedom.

It started as a brother defending the honor of his only sister, but it led to a bloody duel and a young man of a prominent family lying dead in the dirt.... Gabriel Stonecroft, along with his lifelong friend Ezra, the son of the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal church, at his side, begins the journey to the far wilderness of the West. One man from prominent social standing, the other with a life of practical experience, are soon joined in life-building adventures.

Deputy US Marshal Jeremiah Halstead is escorting notorious outlaw John Hudson across the territory for trial when he's ambushed by a pack of Hudson's men anxious to rescue their partner from his custody. Halstead puts the blast on them, but outnumbered and outgunned, he has little choice but to hole up in an old mining town known as Silver Cloud, Montana. It's a place where he can keep a lock on his prisoner while figuring out how to get past Hudson's gang alive. But the folks in Silver Cloud are none too happy playing host to the lawman or his kill-crazy prisoner.

Thirty years after the Battle of San Jacinto, Texans and Mexicans are still spilling blood over control of the Nueces Strip. And Horse thieves and bushwhackers transform this hot, dry stretch between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers into a lawless inferno. Despite long odds, Captain McNelly and his small band of Texas Rangers strive to bring lasting peace to this swirling vortex of murder and racial hatred.

The outlaw Darby brothers have been sentenced to hang until dead. Witnessing the execution are Amelia Darby, sister of the condemned men, as well as US Deputy Marshal Sam “Trusty” Dawson and Judge Gordon Hadesworth. After justice is served, Trusty hits the trail, escorting the judge - and begrudgingly, Amelia - back to Oklahoma. Ambushed en route, the judge is murdered and Amelia vanishes, leaving Trusty to believe she led them into a trap for revenge.

In Bitter Trail, Kelton tells the story of a tough teamster named Frio Wheeler whose wagons haul cotton from Texas to Mexico. Sounds like a peaceable enterprise?The problem is that the Civil War is raging throughout the South and Wheeler's cotton is to be sold for gold - gold used to buy guns and ammunition for the Confederate army.