Western Crime Fiction

Six men rode into the west Texas town of Rook in December of 1895. Moments later, all six men lay dead in the street, shot to death by the good citizens of the town. Ira “Doc” Pearson is sent by the Texas Rangers to investigate, expected to just rubber stamp the proceedings for the dead men were known as the Lawrence Gang: wanted in Texas and New Mexico for bank robberies, rustling, and murder.

Tex Larimee is a grizzled Arizona sheriff who’s leaving the deserts of Cactus County behind, blazing a trail east to mix it up with The Slickers in the canyons of Manhattan. Tex’s welcome to New York is a rude one. Robbed of his cash, gun and badge, he’s locked in a room in back of a run-down bar. Breaking out of the bar, he goes looking for his best friend...only to find him dead, his throat cut. And the cops accuse Tex of committing the murder.

Alice Green lives with ghosts. A rogue cop whose mistake led to the loss of a young girl's parents, Alice is haunted by the decisions that halted her sterling career. And now the same girl who lost her parents has been abducted. And Alice will stop at nothing to find her. Joshua O'Brien doesn't want to tell his brothers - fellow inheritors of his deceased parents' ranch - that he has bigger plans. Applying to work for the F.B.I. brings the possibility of an exciting and illustrious career.

There'd been several killings in Melville. Unusual killings, no witnesses, no clues, and no suspects. Sheriff Jim Bonner was having a time trying to narrow his search down. He had no idea where to look, or what he might be looking for. The murder was so gruesome, so unexpected, neither him nor his deputy, Smitty Younger, knew where to start looking. Whoever was doing this to his peaceful town was clever and covered his tracks. So Jim set about setting a trap for the villain.

Three fictional books in one about a greedy grandmother who would do anything to make a living by selling cannabis, booze, and playing hot and heavy card games. She gets burned out of her farm rents a beach house and starts all over buying a yacht and doing more hot and heavy poker and gin rummy games. She grows her cannabis and adds LSD to make it more fun causing havoc.

A rogue vigilante seeks redemption in a lawless, near-future America that fully protects the rights of armed citizens to stand their ground against mass shooters and motorcycle gangs. When a marksman known as the Wanderer opens war against injustice in the state of Arizona, his violent actions attract the attention of journalist Rosa Veras, writer of a subversive blog about America's return to the Wild West.

From the introduction by James Thompson: Finland, the myths and truths. Internationally, it has a reputation as perhaps the best place in the world to live. A great economy. A low crime rate. Good and nearly cost-free health care. The needy are provided for by the state and live in reasonable comfort. Finns: peaceful and quiet people, living in the perfect example of a social democracy functioning as it should. A tourist, or even a person who has lived here for a length of time, might well view Finland as such.

Western Australia, 1988. After betraying the Knights motorcycle gang, 17-year-old Lee Southern flees to the city with nothing left to lose. Working as a rogue tow-truck driver in Perth, he is captured by right-wing extremists whose combination of seduction and blackmail keeps him on the wrong side of the law and under their control. As the true nature of what drives his captors unfolds, Lee becomes an unwilling participant in a breathtakingly ambitious plot - and a cold-blooded crime that will show just how much he, and everyone else, still has to lose.

Nothing much happens in Peaceful Valley, Montana. And that's just how Sheriff Lucas Monk likes it. Aside from the occasional drunken brawl or minor disturbance out on the reservation, he hasn't had to resort to his fists or sidearm in years. That is, until mid-October, 1914, when the theft of a wooden cigar store Indian sets off a crime wave like nothing Lucas has ever seen. Teenager Charity Axthelm goes missing, Reba Purvis' housekeeper is poisoned with cyanide Reba is sure was meant for her, and Lucas' gut tells him that this is only the beginning.

Two small towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, nothing but 12 miles of empty road. Jack Reacher can't find a ride, so he walks. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets are four redneck deputies who want to run him out of town.

A rural noir about a woman on a pulse-pounding expedition to deliver a fugitive - and forced to confront her own past on the journey.

As a sergeant for the Apache Tribal police, Al Victor considers it his responsibility to protect traditional Apache culture while enforcing the law. But now those two duties are coming into direct conflict as he tracks a vagrant medicine man onto sacred ground.

Eco-activist Summer Avery abandons the bustle of New York City and scurries to the tiny coastal village of Tide Harbor, determined to accomplish what a crazy bomber has not—stop the destructive Minas Basin tidal energy project in its tracks and earn the EcoGreen directorship. Desperate for a safe place to raise his autistic daughter, recently divorced marine biologist Gil Moses takes a job with the tidal energy company, ostensibly to study lobsters, but actually to capture the bomber.

ANOTHER FANTASTIC STORY IN THIS SERIES…Verified Purchase, 5 starsA Marshal. A Beautiful Thief. An enemy she can't outrun. "Fantastic romantic adventure..." 5 StarsWhat an intriguing story with adventure, danger, and romantic suspense…5 Stars Bella Devereaux dreamed of being a restaurateur, not a thief. But life had other plans. Forced to compromise her principles to survive, Bella always gives half of her ill-gotten gains to the French émigrés in New Orleans and saves the other half to fulfill her lifelong goal of opening her own French café. A priceless cache of jewels was supposed ...

As a cop in a family of criminals, I’m constantly straddling two worlds. Which is usually something I can handle - until I meet her. A fiercely stubborn dark-haired beauty with a wildfire temper to match. It’s too bad our first encounter ends in me taking her back to the station…instead of my bed. But it turns out that I may never get a chance to have her, because she’s Grace Walsh. The daughter of my family’s oldest enemy. And this little chance encounter might just be the beginning of an all-out war.

When her mother is killed by the crossfire in a gun battle in the city, Emma Rose Murphy has no choice but to accompany her aunt and uncle on their journey to Oregon. The trail is hard and full of hard people, but Emma Rose knows two things for sure. One, she's never going to fall in love and two, she will never be able to trust a man who carries a gun. When the handsome Noah Parker saves her from an unknown attacker in the dead of night, Emma Rose doesn't know whether to kiss him or run for her life. Former Marshal Noah Parker knows all about evil. First a Pinkerton agent, then a deputy ...

Detective Inspector Sean Corrigan is not like other detectives. An unthinkable childhood left him with a fierce determination to protect the innocent. But it also marked him with an ability to identify the darkness in others - a darkness he recognizes still exists deep within himself. When a young man is found brutally murdered, Corrigan, responsible for South London's Murder Investigation Team, takes the case.

A small-town sheriff’s dark past may be the only thing that keeps his town alive.... Jack Lamburt has a bright future as the sheriff of a quiet town. He knows the locals by name, he’s dating the bar mistress, and nobody suspects his dark secrets. When big city mafia stirs up trouble in his small town, Lamburt retaliates with swift, violent action. Now the crime syndicate is in search for answers...and blood. With the lives of the people he swore to protect in grave danger, Lamburt will need every weapon in his arsenal to outmaneuver the mob.

Ty Dawson, now the sheriff of Oregon's Meriwether County, is ready to put a trying year behind him, but he's afforded no such luck. In a country still coming to grips with the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Charles Manson, Ty's neck of the woods isn't safe from the turmoil-especially when a commune of young so-called hippies springs up out of nowhere . . .

Ted Sweeney. Affable everyman in small-town Montana. Tailgate hung on with baling wire, owner of his own business. Ten minutes ago, his biggest worry had been how to pay for the engagement ring rattling around in his pocket. But that was before he came home to find a corpse tidily arranged in his favorite recliner, his "old pal of a piece of furniture". Is it a warning or a setup or what? Sweeney can't help but admire the efficiency of the work, the slice deep across the guy's throat. Somebody knew what they were doing.