Literature Dramatized

"McNelly Knows a Ranger": From the day Chick Bowdrie rode up to Noah Whipple’s ranch gravely wounded, Whipple had treated him with kindness - almost like a son. When Whipple is shot by a notorious gunfighter, Bowdrie swears vengeance. "A Job for a Ranger": There were bullet holes in the bank window and blood on the hitching rail. Five bandits and 10,000 dollars had ridden out of town. "Desert Death Song": Powder Basin - the rugged country at the edge of a dry, forbidding desert - holds more hiding places than most men could find. Nat Bodine knows most of them....

"Rain on a Mountain Fork": Lawman, manhunter, peacemaker - it takes a hard breed of man to survive as a Texas Ranger, but Chick Bowdrie stands head and shoulders above the rest. "A Ranger Rides to Town": Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie is a good man to have on your side and a bad man to have on your trail. When an anonymous note alerts him to an impending bank robbery, he rides into a blazing gun battle. "Down Sonora Way": Chick Bowdrie and Tensleep Mooney, a tough, wily, Wyoming cowhand, are locked in a stalemate with nothing between them but 60 yards and a Winchester.

Smoke Jensen drives a herd of longhorns to Dodge City, and finds a town in the grip of terror - its only lawman outgunned by a cutthroat gang led by the West's most notorious outlaw. His name is "Bloody Bill" Anderson, a Confederate guerrilla whose violent career as a gunhawk has earned him a deadly reputation. Now he's found his match in the Mountain Man - and it's time for an all-out war.

Hearing a rumor that the Trader, his old teacher and friend, is still alive, Ryan and his warrior group struggle across the treacherous Texas desert to find the truth. But an enemy with a score to settle is in hot pursuit — and so is the elusive Trader. The predark city of Sonora — preserved for a century in the salt and sand of the nukescape — becomes the staging ground for a showdown between mortal enemies, where the scales of revenge and death will be balanced with brutal finality.

An abandoned hilltop farmhouse. Seven desperate people, and a surrounding darkness ripped by bloodcurdling cries of anguish. A state of emergency has been declared: the unimaginable is happening in the night.

In the altered reality of the Deathlands, America's coastal waters haven't escaped the ravages of the nukecaust, but the awesome power of the oceans still rules here. It's a power that will let Ryan Cawdor, first among post-holocaust survivors, ride the crest of victory — or consign his woman to the raging depths. Emerging from a gateway on the ruins of the Georgia coastline, Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists embark on a voyage up the Atlantic coast. But treachery awaits as they're beset by pirates, then a violent storm.

Fitchner’s quest for revenge continues as he and the other Sons of Ares seek out the Golds who have wronged his family. But actions come with repercussions, and an elaborate game of cat and mouse is on. A battle of Gold versus Gold erupts further into more than acts of vengeance and becomes the seeds of a revolution.

When the crew of the Oceanus rescued a man close to death, its captain could barely have guessed at the incredible story that man would come to share. This is the story of Victor Frankenstein: a man obsessed with discovering the secret of life and cheating death; a man who brings to life to a body built from corpses; and a man who rejects this would-be child.... Soon Victor and his creature are entangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse across Europe. But who is truly the monster?

We return to P.I. Matthew Richter, currently a zombie, in the city of Nekropolis. In this case, he’s after a wand that turns things into silver, but before he can get far in his search, he’s forced to use a coin to turn himself into a human. He’s got one shot now to get back home to his significant other for their only chance at having a kid...but of course, all of Nekropolis is out to get him (or so it seems).

Crater City, New Mexico, is a bustling mining town brimming with the stench of men hungry to get rich the old fashioned way - killing the competition. Dennis Conroy is the owner of the biggest saloon in town, and he needs a few good sharpshooters to help protect surveyors laying out a route for a spur rail lie before his rival Hugh Thornton beats him to it. Jo Buckhorn’s handy with a gun so he takes the job.

Murders are taking place on Haven's Street of Gods - the gods themselves are being killed. Hawk and Fisher are assigned to work with a Seer, a Sorcerer, and a Swordsman, a peacekeeping team known as the God Squad. Together, their task is to bring the killer to justice before the mounting panic erupts into an all-out War of the Gods, which could destroy the city of Haven.

Jane Candia Coleman is a natural storyteller whose characters come from the lands between the southwestern valleys of Arizona and the Gila Mountains of New Mexico. The night Billy the Kid died is hauntingly depicted in "Corrido for Billy". "Lady Flo" is a memoir, based on historical fact, of the black wife of an Irish nobleman. "Moving On" depicts a young girl abandoned by her family who finds her way with an itinerant Jewish peddler. And "Are You Coming Back, Phin Montana?" is the winner of the 1995 Spur Award for Best Western Short Fiction.

"The Black Rock Coffin Makers": Cattleman Jum Gatlin isn't the kind of man who goes looking for a fight. But he never turns away when one comes looking for him. And that's just what happens when he finds himself mistaken for another man. "A Mule for Santa Fe": Scott Miles and his son Billy are on their way to a new life in New Mexico, but fate deals them a bad hand in the deceptive currents of the Missouri River. "Case Closed - No Prisoners": Ride with legendary Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie as he helps out a small town with a big problem.

Magus is a steel-eyed cybernetic sociopath whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Now, the savage Pacific isles above a long-submerged Southern California are his new arena. Ryan wants a second chance to chill Magus once and for all. But as the ringmaster of torture orchestrates his magnum opus, a stunning sideshow is under way. Pre-Dark white coats believe they have found the key to turn back time and intercept the deed that erased human history.

Myra Reed’s life is going great. Being a cop is great. Guarding the library of arcane secrets is great. Even dealing with the monsters and gods vacationing in the little beach town of Ordinary, Oregon is great. Then the demon, Bathin, strolls into town and steals Myra’s sister’s soul. So much for great. Luckily, Myra has a plan to evict the demon and save her sister’s soul. Step one: shut down the portals to hell popping up in town. Step two: get rid of the pink know-it-all unicorn. Step three: don’t die while teaching Death how to be a cop.

Hawk and Fisher, captains of the City Guard of Haven, are assigned to be bodyguards for a Reform candidate during an election campaign. Candidate James Adamant is beset from all sides by enemies - political, personal and supernatural. Keeping him alive long enough to count the ballots could cost the lives of both Hawk and Fisher, in a deadly game where the winner takes all.

Ryan travels to the snowy wastes north of the 49th parallel to rescue his young son, enslaved in a mining colony. In this forbidding landscape, one of Ryan's oldest enemies lies in wait, orchestrating a deadly finale to their private war. In the biting cold, Ryan must battle a legion of hunter androids designed to track and kill any intruders with ruthless ingenuity. But for Ryan Cawdor, the need to save his son is greater than any threat the one-eyed warrior may encounter.

On the Western frontier there was no lawman more feared and respected than U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman. But now Tilghman has found the body of a man left outside a Texas saloon. And with more than a strong hunch who the killer was, Tilghman starts tracking down a man just as legendary as he is: Smoke Jensen.

Of all the resources Ryan Cawdor and his group struggle to recoup, hope for escaping the grim daily life-and-death struggle has suffered most. But now reports of a ville holding the mythical waters of rejuvenation, a fountain of youth, appear to be true, luring Doc and the others on a journey inspired by promise, tainted by mistrust. Hiring on as sec men with a convoy headed to the healing waters of Babyville, the survivors discover the deadly price of immortality.

They are strangers in a strange land — a band of German immigrants trespassing across the Jensen family spread. Led by a baron fleeing a dark past in Germany and accompanied by a woman beautiful enough to dazzle young Matt, the pilgrims are being pursued by a pack of brutal outlaws hungry for blood, money — or maybe something else.... The Jensens are willing to help the pioneers get to the promised land in Wyoming.