Louis L'amour

Louis L'Amour takes William Tell Sackett on a treacherous passage from the Arizona goldfields to the booming town of Los Angeles. Tell Sackett was no ladies' man, but he could spot trouble easily enough. And Dorinda Robiseau was the kind of trouble he wanted to avoid at any time--even more so when he had thirty pounds of gold in his saddlebags and a long way to travel. But when she begged him for safe passage to Los Angeles, Sackett reluctantly agreed. Now he's on a perilous journey through the most brutal desert on the continent, traveling with a companion he doesn't trust . . . and headed for a confrontation with a deadly gunman who also bears the name of Sackett.

They tried to tell him that his father had killed himself, but Kearney McRaven knew better. No matter what life had dealt him, his father would go down fighting. And as he delved deeper into the mystery, he learned that just before his father died, the elder McRaven had experienced a remarkable run of luck: he'd won nearly ten thousand dollars and the deed to a cattle ranch. Not yet eighteen, Kearney was determined enough to track down his father's murderer and claim what was rightfully his. Now, followed every step of the way by a shadowy figure, Kearney must solve the mystery of his father's hidden past--a past that concealed a cold-blooded killer who would stop at nothing to keep a chilling secret.

In 1844 nobody believed there was gold in California. Nobody, that is, except the Mulkerina and an old Indian with mystical powers. The Mulkerins needed a treasure to settle the debt on their Malibu ranch. The Indian was willing to lead them to one. But riding hard on their trail was the greediest band of cutthroats north of the Baja. Killing was their business. Doing it for gold would only make it sweeter.

When Gaylord Riley walked away from the Coburn gang, he had money and a dream. He worked hard and built a cabin, gathered a herd of cattle, and fell in love with Marie Shattuck. But when he is confronted with false accusations of rustling and murder, Riley is forced to defend his new law-abiding way of life. Outnumbered and facing a lynching party, Riley is surprised when his old friends return to lend him a hand. But how can they help him and keep themselves out of jail? With the local marshal already suspicious of Riley, the Coburn gang will have to plan well and move fast. But that shouldn't be a problem. Their reputation was built by doing just that.

Wounded, dehydrated, and escaping a violent feud with the men of Bob Sutton's ranch, Trace Jordan is near collapse when he descends from the heat of the desert into a cool, secluded canyon. He wakes to find a beautiful woman gently nursing him back to health. Strong and proud, Maria Cristina has also suffered at the hands of Sutton and his men. The experience has left her hostile and defiant. Trace, intrigued by Maria's grit and determination, can't help trying to peel back her layers--but his attraction makes her a target. Sutton's men are watching and waiting for Trace to show himself. If he escapes, Maria will have to face them alone. But if he convinces her to go with him, Trace and Maria will have to survive a heat-blasted, waterless desert. And if that doesn't kill them, the Apaches will.

Tap Duvarney fought in the War Between the States, then signed on as an Indian fighter with the frontier army. Now he's settled in Texas, working a ranch as the partner of his old friend Tom Kittery -- and in the middle of a blood feud between Kittery and the vicious Munson clan. Around Matagorda, most folks are either on the side of the Munsons -- or laying low. With Kittery and the Munsons out to spill each other's blood, and Kittery's woman stirring up trouble between the two uneasy partners, Duvarney knows he's headed for a savage showdown. But will it be with the Munsons, his enemies... or with Kittery, his friend?

You can't go home again.... East Texas wasn't much of a home for Cullen Baker. Few liked him, and some even tried to kill him. Yet after three hard years of wandering, he's come back to farm the land that's rightfully his. Only Cullen's in for an unwelcome homecoming: his neighbors have long memories, the Reconstructionists have greedy hearts, and his worst enemy has teamed up with a vicious outlaw. But Cullen isn't about to back down. Instead, he's intent on perfecting a new way of gunfighting--the fast draw. And now, with enemies closing in on three sides and threatening the woman he loves, he'll have to be faster than lightning--and twice as deadly--just to survive.

They came west to stay, risking their blood to dig the gold, ride the range, conquer the greedy, and carve out a legacy of freedom. Men honed by desert fires and edged by combat with fist and gun. Women tested to the limit of endurance by an unrelenting land. Now, in a long-awaited collection of his stories, Louis L'Amour tells of the real heroes of the frontier, the survivors for whom hanging tough was as natural as drawing breath.

Louis L'Amour's classic novels of the West make for perfect Father's Day gifts Lawman, manhunter, peacemaker--it takes a hard breed of man to survive as a Texas Ranger, but Chick Bowdrie stands head and shoulder above the rest. The rough trails are his home, from the Big Thicket to the Pecos to the border. He's dried by the desert sun and wind, scarred and toughened by uncounted gun battles, and when you look into his black eyes it's like looking down the barrels of two .44s with their hammers drawn back. He rides in the name of justice, but he lives by his own law--Bowdrie's Law. And if you're thinking about walking on the wrong side of Bowdrie Law, you'd better start running. Fast.

In The Lonely Men, Louis L'Amour spins the tale of a man who must elude an Apache trap--only to discover that his greatest enemy might be very close to home. Tell Sackett had fought his share of Indians and managed to take something of value from his battles: a deep and abiding respect. But that respect is lost when Apache braves kidnap his nephew, forcing Tell to cross the border into the Sierra Madres to bring the boy back. What troubles Tell more, though, is the boy's mother: Could she possibly be inventing a rescue mission to deliver her husband's brother into an ambush? Tell knows that the only things he can depend on are his wits and cold steel. But against such adversaries, even these formidable weapons may not be enough.

In Lonely on the Mountain, Louis L'Amour's solitary wandering Sackett brothers make a stand together--to save one of their own. The rare letters Tell Sackett received always had trouble inside. And the terse note from his cousin Logan is no exception. Logan faces starvation or a hanging if Tell can't drive a herd of cattle from Kansas to British Columbia before winter. To get to Logan, he must brave prairie fires, buffalo stampedes, and Sioux war parties. But worse trouble waits, for a mysterious enemy shadows Sackett's every move across the Dakotas and the Canadian Rockies. Tell Sackett has never abandoned another Sackett in need. He will bring aid to Logan--or die trying.

Ninety years ago the Toomey brothers, along with twenty-five other men and four thousand 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. Soon Dan is living the dangers of the Old West firsthand--tracked through the savage wilderness by vicious killers straight out of the most violent pages of his stories. However, his enemies have made one serious mistake: Sheridan is no pencil-pushing greenhorn, and killing him won't be as easy as they think.

In Lando, Louis L'Amour has created an unforgettable portrait of a unique American hero. For six long years Orlando Sackett survived the horrors of a brutal Mexican prison. He survived by using his skills as a boxer and by making three vows. The first was to exact revenge on the hired killers who framed him. The second was to return to his father. And the third was to find Gin Locklear. But the world has changed a lot since Lando left it. His father is missing. The woman he loves is married. And the killers want him dead. Hardened physically and emotionally, Lando must begin an epic journey to resolve his past, even if it costs him his life.

Deep in Indian country, Major Mark Devereaux and his men find a grisly scene: a wagon train savagely attacked, with no survivors. One of the wagons originally with the group is missing; in it is a fortune in gold and Devereaux's daughter, Mary. The slaughter, Devereaux learns, was not the work of Indians but of a murderous outlaw band. With the stakes rising in a deadly game, the only wild card is Lieutenant Tenadore Brian, who is riding with the missing wagon--against orders. Devereaux knows Brian is a good soldier, but is he good enough to protect a saddlebag full of gold . . . and the life of his daughter?

How do you bring a million dollars in gold down a mountain? First you have to find it, and that's mighty hard when you're tracking a trail that's twenty years old. But the Sackett brothers were determined to find the treasure and to discover if their father, who blazed the trail long ago, was still alive. They just hoped that they were smarter than those New Orleans folks who wanted the gold -- and were willing to kill for it.

For the westerner trouble came with the territory. Long grass valleys, merciless deserts, sheer rock cliffs, icy streams, hidden trails, dusty towns. These were the proving grounds of daily life. At any time violence could explode and on the frontier there was no avoiding its sudden terrible impact. In this collection of his stories Louis L'Amour guides us to some of these untamed places where men and women faced the challenge of survival. And for the first time, L'Amour also presents a selection of riveting scenes from western history that are every bit as exciting as his stories.

Clay Bell was a onetime drifter who'd grown weary of long trails and settled on the sweetest land he'd ever seen. For six years he fought Indians, rustlers, and the wilderness itself to make the Bar-B ranch the prize of the Deep Creek Range. But now all that Clay has worked for is threatened. Jud Devitt, a ruthless speculator from the East, wants Bell's rich timberland--and he doesn't care how he gets it. Backing Devitt are tame judges, crooked politicians, and fifty of the toughest lumberjacks in the county. Devitt doesn't know how to lose. Bell figures he's just the one to teach him.

Range War. Utah Blaine had escaped from a Mexican prison and was headed north on foot when he came upon a hanging. The man in the noose was a tough old Texas rancher; the executioners were his own men turned against him, and Blaine stepped out of the shadows just in time to save a life. Now Blaine has a proposition: He'll ride to the rancher's land, take over as foreman of his outfit, and take on his enemies. Blaine is no stranger to fighting in another man's war, but soon enough he'll find a reason of his own: a cause worth dying for, and a woman worth living for...