I'm pleased and proud to be included in this anthology with some of the best Western writers in the business today. Livia and I collaborated on a story for this book, the first-ever team-up between Judge Earl Stark and Lucas Hallam. It's a Fort Worth-set adventure called "The Cowtown Inferno", and it worked so well I hope we can team up Hallam and Big Earl again sometime. This book will be out soon, and I'll let you know when it's available. In the meantime, you can pre-order it on Amazon and get the best price guarantee.
Six full length detective novels with a mix of longtime bestselling mystery authors and some new to the genre.
This set includes James Reasoner’s legendary debut novel TEXAS WIND. Originally published in 1980, TEXAS WIND has been acclaimed as one of the finest private eye novels ever written.
DEVIL IN A CAGE is a classic private eye novel by renowned action/adventure author W.L. Fieldhouse. Featuring a compelling protagonist in John Weller, a complex plot, sheer storytelling energy, insightful social commentary, and a vivid portrait of Las Vegas that could only be provided by an insider like Fieldhouse. A powerful novel of crime and detection.
Multi award winning novel WILD NIGHT is a historical detective novel. In the 1920's Lucas Hallam was something of a legend: a Texas Ranger turned Pinkerton agent turned Hollywood P.I. And when the occasion arose, Hallam mounted up again and rode with Tom Mix, William S. Hart, and the other famous movie cowboys of the silent era. He didn't think of his past often, and it was the furthest thing from his mind when he went into Chuckwalla, California, hoping to turn the ghost town into a movie set . . . even when the two men started shooting at him.
SOME DIE HARD is legendary mystery and thriller author Stephen Mertz's first novel, originally published in paperback nearly forty years ago and long out of print. Part hardboiled private eye yarn, part classic novel of detection (with a locked-room mystery unlike any other), SOME DIE HARD is pure entertainment.
In TRIPL3 CROSS, veteran author John Hegenberger spins a yarn that is both an exciting thriller and a compelling piece of "noirstalgia", expertly recreating a sense of late-Eighties paranoia and double-dealing and painting a vivid picture of Washington and Cuba during that era, as well as saving a shocking twist for the very end.
Acclaimed, bestselling historical novelist James J. Griffin makes a stunning debut as an author of contemporary thrillers with MURDER AMONG THE CLOUDS. Fast-paced, populated with compelling, intriguing characters, and filled with fascinating police procedure and breathtaking suspense.
The good old shoot-'em-up westerns are still around, and this collection has six by the masters of the genre.
West of the Big River: The Avenging Angel by Michael Newton – Orrin Porter Rockwell is more than just a deputy United States marshal and a deadly gunfighter. He's a member of the Mormon Danites, the group of enforcers known as the Avenging Angels, and he's the personal troubleshooter for Governor Brigham Young. And when Young sends Rockwell to the rough-and-tumble mining town of Tartarus, there'll be plenty of trouble for him to shoot. Award-winning author Michael Newton spins an action-packed, historically accurate yarn in THE AVENGING ANGEL.
The classic, Spur Award-winning novel by Frank Roderus, POTTER'S FIELDS is the story of Joe Potter, a man haunted by the past who deals with the harsh realities of the frontier by becoming harsh and violent himself. A former lawman no longer able to find work carrying a badge because of his corruption and brutality, Potter becomes a cowboy and spends the winter in an isolated line shack, where the arrival of a stranger forces him to confront himself and his past. Rich with poignant emotion and vividly detailed ranch life, POTTER'S FIELDS is a novel that will stay with the reader long after the story is over.
Jake Scudder is just a drifting, peace-loving cowboy. So why does he find himself in jail, convicted of the murder of an old-timer he had befriended and sentenced to hang for that crime he didn't commit? Jake gets a chance to clear his name when the train taking him to the gallows crashes, but was that wreck an accident? Who's the real ringleader of the gang of vicious outlaws known as the Marauders? Jake Scudder has to dodge not only the law but also a cunning murderer as he attempts to save his own life and that of a beautiful young woman. A ROPE FOR SCUDDER is another classic, action-packed Western from bestselling author Clay More.
A fortune in gold dust, two beautiful women, a pair of deadly bushwhackers gunning for him, a dangerous blizzard, an avalanche, and an unknown plotter masterminding murder and robbery . . . These are just some of the things Clay Brand has to deal with when he signs on to guard gold shipments coming down from the mining country in California's San Bernardino Mountains. But before Clay can get to the bottom of the violence plaguing the mountains, he'll have to shoot straight and fast and escape the unexpected menace of a lynch mob! GUN FOR HIRE is the first Western ever written by acclaimed author Jory Sherman. Includes a new introduction by the author written especially for this volume in the Western Fictioneers Library.
In THE HAM REPORTER by Robert J. Randisi, Bat Masterson is no longer a sheriff in the Old West. He’s moved East to New York City where he gets a job as a sports writer for The Morning Telegraph. But when his friend and fellow-newsman, Inkspot Jones, disappears, Masterson’s wife Emma asks if he could look into it as a favor to the man’s wife. It doesn’t look hopeful—Inkspot had something on somebody, and that somebody may have decided to play rough. Pretty soon they’re up to their eyeballs in crooked politicians, hired thugs and a woman of mystery. And before it’s done, Bat may have to strap on his Colt again for some old fashioned Western justice.
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 award-winning, bestselling authors James Reasoner and L.J. Washburn.
(What's that? It's not Christmas, you say? Well, no, but it's Christmas in July for Prairie Rose Publications, and since I'm a member of the extended family, I guess you could say, their Sundown Press line is reprinting a couple of stories I wrote in years past for Christmas anthologies. Judge Earl Stark and my Texas Ranger character Cobb both make appearances. Livia has a Christmas double as well, featuring Lucas Hallam and Buffalo Newcomb. It may be 100 degrees outside, but these are all good yarns no matter what time of year it is. Check 'em out!)
POWDERSMOKE CHRISTMAS:
’Tis The Season For Justice
It's a life or death Christmas Eve for the man accused of murdering the son of the richest man in the territory. Former shotgun guard Judge Earl Stark knows how to stomp his own snakes, and he makes sure 'TIS THE SEASON FOR JUSTICE.
Presents for One and All
Texas Ranger Cobb is supposed to pick up a prisoner wanted in Parker County and take him back down to Weatherford. Instead he finds himself battling a gang of outlaws and tangling with an old coot driving a wagon full of Christmas gifts, and it's up to him to make sure there are PRESENTS FOR ONE AND ALL.
WILD WEST CHRISTMAS
Blue Norther
Hired gun Lucas Hallam has been outnumbered plenty of times, but when he comes upon a necktie party for a young boy accused of cattle rustling, he has to step into danger once more—even with the odds stacked against him. No one should hang on Christmas Eve.
When the nearby cattle stampede, it looks like things can’t get any worse. But the weather is turning deadly, and if they don’t get the cattle to shelter—as well as themselves—everything will be lost. Can Hallam protect them from the coming BLUE NORTHER?
A Creature Was Stirring
Mistaken for a “skookum”, Buffalo Newcomb is shot by a young boy, Tom Villard, as he stops by a creek to fish. When he comes to in a small cabin, Buffalo is grateful to realize that the boy’s mother, Ella, has removed the bullet and he has a safe place to recover.
It’s Christmas Eve, and A CREATURE WAS STIRRING—Buffalo can only hope he’s strong enough to keep it from destroying the woman who has shown him only kindness.
In a couple of weeks Thorndike will be publishing a large print edition of WIND RIVER, the first book in the Western series that Livia and I wrote back in the Nineties. We just got our author copies, and it's a beautiful book. We have e-book editions of the entire series available, but this is the first print edition since the original paperbacks many years ago, and you can pre-order it now from Amazon.
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.
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.
RIVERS OF GOLD: A NOVEL OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH is now available as an e-book for both the Kindle and the Nook. This is a book that Livia and I wrote a number of years ago, and it's the sort of big, sprawling, historical epic nobody writes much anymore. And if I do say so myself, I think it's the sort of book that we do really well and it's one of my favorites among our historical novels. Lots of action and romance, colorful settings and characters, some historical background, a little humor, and a final scene that I really, really like. Check it out!
The new Wind River novel RANSOM VALLEY is now available for the Kindle. The Nook edition is in the works, and this book will soon be available as a trade paperback, too, along with the original six books in the series. When we decided to reprint this series as e-books, we hoped that it would be successful enough for us to continue with new entries, and so it has. RANSOM VALLEY takes place about six months after the events in JUDGMENT DAY, the sixth book in the series. It was great fun to work on . . . and this afternoon Livia and I started talking about what we're going to do in the next book. This is a great time to be a writer.
Still free for the rest of the day today, four top-notch stories about 1920s Hollywood private eye and old cowboy Lucas Hallam. If you haven't made his acquaintance yet, this is the perfect chance.
With everything else going on this weekend, I don't want to forget that two more of Livia's Western novels written under the name L.J. Washburn are now available as e-books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. EPITAPH was her first Western and introduced the characters of Hank Littleton and Buffalo Newcomb. Buffalo also appears in RIDERS OF THE MONTE, and Hank shows up again in BANDERA PASS, making those three books not really a series but certainly connected. And they're all fine books, too.
Barnes & Noble links:
Epitaph
Now with more than 34,000 words of fine hardboiled fiction, Livia's collection of Lucas Hallam stories is free this weekend on Amazon. Two more stories have been added for this promotion, "The Blue Burro" (very BLACK MASK-like and one of my favorite Hallam stories) and "Ladysmith", one of Hallam's adventures when he was still working as a Pinkerton agent. So even if you picked this one up before, you'll want to get it again because it's, did I mention, FREE.
Livia has made HALLAM, which collects two long stories featuring her private eye character Lucas Hallam, free for today only. This e-book volume includes "Hallam", the 10,000 word story that introduced the character, which originally appeared in the first Private Eye Writers of America anthology, THE EYES HAVE IT, and "Hollywood Flesh", a 7000 word yarn that has Hallam coming up against zombies in Hollywood. (That's right, Hallam was fighting the Zombie Apocalypse before it was cool!) This one originally appeared in the anthology THE BOOK OF ALL FLESH. These are fine stories, and you sure can't beat the price.
And don't forget, my short story "The Red Reef" is still available for free today and tomorrow.
Back in the Nineties, Livia and I wrote a six-book Western series for Harper Paperbacks called WIND RIVER. We wanted to put both names on the books, but the publisher nixed that idea and insisted on a single by-line. Now the whole series is available for both the Kindle and the Nook with both names on it as intended. If at all possible, these books should be read in order, because we knew what was going to happen in the sixth book before we ever wrote a line of the first book, and there are developments all the way through leading up to that. I think these are some of our best Westerns, and I hope those of you who give them a try enjoy them. (I'll put links to the Kindle editions of all six books on the E-Book Catalog page.)
And here's the trailer that Livia made for the series:
Two more books from our backlist have been released as e-books for both the Kindle and the Nook. My novel THE WILDERNESS ROAD, originally published by Harper Paperbacks, is a frontier historical set in Kentucky in 1790. Despite this, the cover of the Harper edition features a cowboy who's a dead ringer for Charles Bronson in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST carrying a Winchester. Of course, who am I to argue, since it sold the best of the eight books I wrote for Harper. It's nice to have it available again, since I always thought it was one of my best books.
Livia's GHOST RIVER is one of several Westerns that originally came out in hardback from M. Evans under the name L.J. Washburn. That's the only edition until now, and it's also very nice to have it available again. It's a stand-alone traditional Western, and none other than Len Meares, the author of the iconic Larry and Stretch series under the name Marshall Grover, read it and declared it one of the best Westerns he'd ever read.
Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) I highly recommend you check 'em both out.
That's what I call more than 17,000 words of Lucas Hallam stories for less than a buck. Especially when one of them is "Hollywood Flesh", with the great opening line:
"What the hell is a zombie?" asked Lucas Hallam.
I reread this story before Livia posted it and liked it more than ever. It's one of my favorites of the whole series.
Livia has decided to give away copies of "Hallam", the 10,000 word novelette that introduced the character back in 1984. If you haven't made Hallam's acquaintance, or if you have but have never read this story, I can't think of a better way to do so. You can check out her blog for all the details.
DOG HEAVIES, Livia's third and final (for now, anyway) Lucas Hallam novel is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. When she put DEAD STICK up, I said it was my favorite of the novels, but now I'm not so sure. DOG HEAVIES is really good, and we get to find out more about Hallam's background in it. Maybe they're tied for my favorite. Yeah, that'll work.
Livia's second Lucas Hallam novel, DEAD STICK, is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. I'd have a really difficult time choosing between this one and the third book, DOG HEAVIES, as my favorite in the series. This one is the most BLACK MASK-like of the three and has some great scenes in it. I'm very happy to see it in print again. (Well, it's an e-book, but you know what I mean . . .)
I'm very pleased to announce that WILD NIGHT, Livia's first novel featuring her private eye character Lucas Hallam, is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. For those of you not familiar with Hallam, he's a cowboy stuntman in 1920s Hollywood who also works as a private investigator. He's a former Texas Ranger and Pinkerton agent and has appeared in three novels and numerous short stories, both mysteries and Westerns. WILD NIGHT, the first Hallam novel, won the Shamus Award and the American Mystery Award as the Best Paperback Original of 1987. It's been out of print for a number of years, but now it's back and I hope a lot of new readers will make Hallam's acquaintance. I'm biased, of course, but I think the three books are great hardboiled PI novels. There should be more Hallam news coming up in the near future as well.
