Showing results by author "Louis L'Amour" in All Categories

Johnny Buck is a young cowboy, working for the Bar W. In the process of roping an old stob-horned steer, Buck is thrown from his horse - and into a hidden cleft where he encounters the mystery of a murdered man and a bag of ore that just might be gold.

To clear the name of an innocent man, Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie pursues a murderous gang of bank robbers and cattle rustlers.

"McQueen of the Tumbling K": Ranch foreman Ward McQueen recognizes trouble when he sees it - and trouble is what the Texan sees when he spies the tracks of a wounded man in the middle of the big Tumbling K spread. "West of the Tularosas" Pelona was a strange town, and Ward McQueen was a stranger to it. The stalwart foreman of the Tumbling K had come to the high country to take legal possession of the Firebox range. "The Sixth Shotgun" 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.

Louis L'Amour's world is built on those dramatic moments when men and women cast their fears, doubts, and pasts behind them and plunge into the unknown. Nowhere is that more evident than in this latest collection of stories set on the American frontier. These selections include "The Nester and the Piute"; "Big Man"; "Waltz Him Around Again"; "Shadow"; "Barney Takes a Hand"; "When a Texan Takes Over"; and "No Trouble for the Cactus Kid".

It was a land where nothing was small, nothing was simple. Everything, the lives of men and the stories they told, ran to extremes. Shanghaied into forced labor on a merchant vessel, Charles Rodney dies aboard ship from repeated beatings, but not before deeding part of his ranch to Rafe Caradec, whom he hopes will protect his family.

A Man Called Trent opens on nester Dick Moffitt lying dead where he was killed by King Bill Hale's riders. His son Jack and adopted daughter Sally, who witnessed the murder, go for safety to a cabin owned by a man called "Trent", an alias for Kilkenny, who is seeking to escape his reputation as a gunfighter.

Matt Bardoul was a good man to have as a friend and a bad one to make trouble with. He was also a single-minded drifter—until he met his match in an outspoken beauty named Jacquine Coyle. She was headed into the Bighorn Mountains with her father and an expedition in search of gold. After Matt signs on to join them, he discovers that there is a group of outlaws in the party—gunfighters and thieves that Matt wouldn’t trust for a minute.

More than any other writer before or since, Louis L'Amour brought the American West to life. His action-packed stories deal with eternal themes: honor, deceit, passion, betrayal, loyalty, courage, love. His settings are historically accurate, his prose riveting, and his characters colorful: good guys, bad buys, toughs, roughs, sidekicks and saints.

No one tells tales of the frontier better than Louis L'Amour, who portrays the human side of westward expansion - the good and the bad - before the days of law and order. Collected here are seven stories penned by America's favorite Western author.

Tyrel Sackett was born into trouble but vowed to justice. After having to kill a man in Tennessee, he hit the trail west with his brother Orrin. Those were the years when decent men and women lived in fear of Indians, rustlers, and killers, but the Sackett brothers worked to make the West a place where people could raise their children in peace. Orrin brought law and order from Santa Fe to Montana, and his brother Tye backed him up every step of the way. Till the day the job was done, Tye Sackett was the fastest gun alive.

When Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie rides into a long-abandoned ranch, he discovers the skeleton of its owner. All signs indicate that he was murdered years before, and that his wife and young daughter were taken away by force. Bowdrie vows to bring the killer to justice and to track down the whereabouts of the missing women. The cold trail leads to hot lead in the town of Gabel's Stop, where a hardcase rancher has been waiting 16 years for the payoff of a lifetime.

Trent came to Idaho seeking solitude. He built a cabin, broke a few wild horses, and quietly put his past behind him. Then King Bill Hale began laying claim to all the land around Cedar Bluff. When Hale's son kills one of Trent's neighbors, Trent quickly steps forward to lead the fight. Their property had been legally filed on, but Bill Hale has the men, money, and political power to steal it from them. What Hale doesn't realize is that Trent also has connections. With evidence that can ruin Hale's scheme, Trent must find a way past Hale's gang of thugs to the men who can help him.

Major James Brionne brought Dave Allard to trial for murder. Just before the hanging, Dave swore his brothers would take vengeance.... Four years later, the Allard boys returned to settle the score. Only Brionne's son escaped. They murdered his wife, destroyed his home, and left Brionne nothing but the charred ruins of his past to haunt him. Seeking peace and a new life, Brionne and the boy headed west. But the Allards hadn't finished with him. He knew they'd call him for a showdown - and this time he'd be ready....

Tom Kedrick earned his stripes during the Civil War, fought Apaches, and even soldiered overseas. But in the high desert country of New Mexico, the battle-hardened Kedrick is entangled in a different kind of war, fueled by greed and deception. Hired by Alton Burwick to drive a pack of renegades and outlaws off the government land recently set aside for an Indian reservation, Kedrick begins to notice that things are not as they seem. As his suspicions grow, he realizes that he may be fighting on the wrong side of a land swindle.

Ninety years ago the Toomey brothers, along with 25 other men and 4,000 head of cattle, vanished en route to Arizona. When writer and historian Dan Sheridan is invited to the missing brothers’ ranch by its current owner, he jumps at the chance. The visit fits right in with his plan to solve the century-old mystery - but it turns out that his host isn’t a fan of books, writers, or people who don’t mind their own business.

These stories are vintage L'Amour: A hard-bitten cattle driver is pitted against a man trying to steal his woman, the disappearance of a thousand head of cattle, and a plot to frame him for murder....A private eye visits a remote mining town on a case involving a sexy widow, an uneasy lawman, and a fortune in gold buried in an abandoned mine shaft....A country boy with a good right hand must fight not only his vicious opponent in the ring but the ruthless gangsters who'll do anything for profit-even commit cold-blooded murder....and more.

These stories represent Louis L'Amour at his best - stirring adventure tales of the ageless Old West, as tough and gritty as the men who tames it. Each story is personally selected, with an introduction and special historical notes, by the author. Meet men like Shad Marone, the gunfighter who killed in self-defense, but who is forced to run because he killed the wrong man - the sheriff's brother; Matt Sabre, as tough as the Texas trail he rides, on a mission of mercy to the wife of the man he gunned down; and Kim Sartain, a reckless young drifter who refuses to back down from a showdown with a vicious outlaw killer

Adam Stark had found gold. In the confusion of the mesas and canyons near Rockinstraw Mountain, Stark, his wife, Consuelo, and his sister, Miriam, were quietly working a rich vein while keeping their presence a secret from raiding Apaches. Worried that his wife might leave him, Stark wanted to make enough money to take her to San Francisco, where she could enjoy the style of life she craved. But when Taggart, a stranger on the run from a vicious bounty hunter, enters their camp, tensions soon mount. Consuelo, against all good judgment, cannot resist testing Taggart.

"South of Deadwood": Take the stagecoach into Deadwood with Ranger Chick Bowdrie to bring a notorious killer back to Texas - and justice. "Too Tough to Brand": Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie was called to the O Bar O Ranch when the foreman, Bert Ramey, disappeared with $15,000. But from what Bowdrie can tell, Ramey is no thief. "A Gun for Kilkenny": A dusty stranger comes into the town of Boquilla in search of a drink after many hard weeks riding the trails. He enters the saloon, and within minutes the town bully is dead on the floor. Who is the stranger? Is he John Wesley Hardin? Or the legendary Marshal Kilkenny?

"Strange Pursuit": Bowdrie wants Charlie Venk. Shrewd and intelligent, Venk is riding hard on the sorrel he's stolen right out from under another man. "The Marshal of Sentinel": 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. "Booty for a Bad Man": Tell Sackett knew that gold spelled trouble faster than anything except a woman, and he had a lot of gold. Problem was, none of it was his.