New Western Fiction in Large Type

In The Sister's Search by Susan Paige Davis, a young woman searches for her missing brother and finds much more awaits her—if she can escape war-torn Texas. Molly Weaver and her widowed mother embark on an arduous journey at the end of the Civil War. They hope to join Molly’s brother Andrew on his ranch in Texas. When they arrive, Andrew is missing and squatters threaten the ranch. Can they trust Joe, the stranger who claims to be Andrew’s friend? Joe’s offer to help may be a godsend—or a snare. And who is the man claiming to be Molly’s father? If he’s telling the truth, Molly’s past is a sham, and she must learn where she really belongs.

Dismal River by Wayne D. Dundee is the first book of the Lone McGantry series. The Nebraska Sandhills of the 1880s are a vast, untamed expanse of treeless, rolling hills scoured by harsh wind and blistering sun. Into this rugged landscape former Indian scout Lone McGantry reluctantly agrees to lead an expedition of explorers and adventurers headed by an English lord. The hardships of the environment soon become secondary, however, when other threats-both from within and without-overtake the expedition. Deceit, betrayal, stampeding buffalo, a raging grass fire, and a band of ruthless marauders all must be dealt with. The very survival of the expedition is at stake. Lives will be lost and the banks of the Dismal River will be scorched and stained by blood before the ordeal is finished.

The latest action-packed installment in the national bestselling Western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone’s entertaining Duff MacCallister series is called Riding the Nightmare. Duff MacCallister left Scotland to forge a new life in America, raising cattle on the western plains of the growing nation. But keeping his dream alive means facing off against the country’s most violent, bloodthirsty men . . .The Spencer family is part of a wagon train passing through Chugwater, Wyoming, bound for the valley of Longshot Basin. Unfortunately, the trail that leads there has been buried under an avalanche. The only route the homesteaders can take is the infamous Nightmare Trail—a  treacherous, terrifyingly steep and narrow mountainside path that has claimed many lives. If that wasn’t dangerous enough, the trail is also a killing ground for the outlaw Hardcastle gang. The disreputable Arkansas Ozark clan don’t take kindly to anyone trespassing on their road without paying—in blood. Duff MacCallister is not about to let the Spencers ride the Nightmare Trail without his guidance. He knows the terrain. He knows how to defend himself. And he knows that when it comes to badmen like the Hardcastles, the best defense is killing first—and fast. Live Free. Read Hard.

A medicine man turns vigilante when he sets out to take revenge against the gang who took everything from him, in Snake Oil Justice, the new Western in Ralph Compton's bestselling Sundown Riders series written by Jackson Lowry. Jerome Frederick Kincannon is a medicine man—an apothecary by trade and a healer at heart. But when his wife and young son are murdered by the notorious Benjamin Gang, his world crumbles around him. Kincannon can't forgive the four Benjamin brothers for their transgressions, and he'll never forget. His ambitions from that day forward are simple: kill them all. For a year, Kincannon has searched high and low for Hank, Leland, Curtis, and the unidentified fourth Benjamin brother. But the gang has proven to be more wily than expected. But Kincannon's content to wait, coiled and ready to strike, until the perfect opportunity comes around. After all, a snake will mind its business if you mind yours—but when provoked, you'd best watch out for its venom.

Large Print Spotlight: William W. Johnstone & J.A. Johnstone

In Rope Burn (Those Jensen Boys!) by William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone, Ace and Chance Jensen find themselves on the wrong side of the law—and the raw end of justice—inside the meanest, dirtiest prison in the Arizona territory. Welcome to the Chain Gang. When a barroom brawl lands Ace and Chance Jensen in jail, it’s just the beginning of a nightmare that will never end. Their jail mates are army deserters. Even worse, their jailers assume Ace and Chance are deserters, too. Which earns them even more hard time—on a brutal  prison chain gang. Things go from bad to worse awfully fast. One prisoner tries to escape and gets blasted in the back. Others face horrific torture at the hands of sadistic renegades. And the whole operation is run by a maniacal army major who’s working the deserters to death for his own profit. Ace and Chance have no choice but to bust out of this miserable hellhole—or die trying. (from Amazon.com)

Authors William W. and J. A. Johnstone are at it again with The Jackals: Stand Up and Die. The wild bunch known as the Jackals returns for another round of justice served cold, hard, and with as many bullets as it takes. Some say bad luck comes in threes. And if you're a bandit, bank robber, or bloodthirsty killer, that bad luck comes in the form of three hard justice-seekers known as the Jackals. Each of the Jackals has his own path to follow: Former Texas Ranger Matt McCulloch is trying to protect a young Commanche from scalp hunters. Retired cavalry sergeant Sean Keegan is dodging bullets in a prison breakout planned by the notorious Benteen brothers. And bounty hunter Jed Breen is bringing in one of the bank-robbing Kruger twins - while the other one's out for his blood. Three Jackals. Three roads to justice. But when their paths cross near Arizona's Dead River, they've got to join forces and face all of their enemies come hell or high water. They don't call it Dead River for nothing." (from Amazon.com)

The latest Luke Jensen: Bounty Hunter novel is Hired Guns. A legend among bounty hunters, Luke Jensen has tracked some of the deadliest outlaws in the West. But sometimes, the competition can be even deadlier. It's the kind of job Luke Jensen hates. A millionaire mine owner is willing to pay $5,000 to the man who captures the half-breed outlaw Tom Eagle. Normally, Luke would turn down an offer like this-it smacks too much of being a hired gun. But when the millionaire tells him that Eagle is responsible for killing his son, Luke agrees to take on the job. Which means he'll have to take the road to hell itself - a.k.a. Hard Rock, Montana. Hard Rock is supposed to be a ghost town. But when Luke arrives, the ghosts are alive and well - and gunning for his hide. They're a gang of actual hired guns - the kind of soulless killers Luke despises - and they're trying to collect the bounty, too. Luke barely makes it out of town alive when he runs in to the only man who can save him. The man he's been hired to hunt. The notorious Tom Eagle. (from Amazon.com)

In Shot to Hell: a Perley Gates Western, the Johnstone hero with the heavenly name--and the hellish task of living up to it--Perley Gates--takes on a gang of cold-blooded killers to save the soul of a small Western town. They say that home is where the heart is. And no one knows that better than Perley Gates. After helping the lovely Miss Emma Slocum reunite with her sister's family in Bison Gap, Perley can't wait to rejoin his own kin at the Triple-G Ranch. No sooner does Perley settle in when he receives an alarming telegram from Bison Gap. Emma's brother-in-law has been murdered. Her sister wants justice. And Perley is their only hope to get it. Perley can't refuse a family in need. So he saddles up with his salty cowhand Possum Smith and heads to Bison Gap. He notices that the town's new sheriff is acting suspicious--and likely in cahoots with the local gang of deadly outlaws. In no time at all there's a target on Perley's back--and the vicious gang leader is calling all the shots. Justice may be hard to find in a town this wicked. But vengeance is swift--straight out of the Gates. (from Amazon.com)

New Large Print Westerns

Winter Counts is a groundbreaking thriller from David Heska Wanbli Weiden about "a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx. Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost." (from Amazon.com)

The new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series by Craig Johnson is called Next to Last Stand. One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer's Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist." (from Amazon.com)

The latest Aaron Mackey western by Terrence McCauley is called The Dark Sunrise. U.S. Marshal Aaron Mackey and his steadfast deputy Billy Sunday are more than ready to see crime boss James Grant and his murderous cronies stand trial for the mayhem and suffering they have wrought upon the citizens of Dover Station, Montana. With Montana’s statehood fast approaching, cruel and murderous men like Grant can no longer be tolerated in positions of power. Unfortunately, the bigwigs in Helena follow their own set of laws and allow Grant to go free. They also give peacekeeping authority to Colonel Nathan Rigg, Mackey’s former commanding officer during the war. Rigg is just as sadistic and bloodthirsty as Grant, but it seems that Helena’s leaders prefer to keep killers like these under their thumbs, but Mackey and Billy know there is no controlling these monsters and they may just have to appoint themselves judge, jury, and executioners. 

The latest Slash and Pecos Western by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone is A Good Day for a Massacre. For Jimmy “Slash” Braddock and Melvin “the Pecos River Kid” Baker, life on the straight and narrow is not always easy, but they are determined to make an honest go of it. Their sometime employer, U.S. Marshal Bledsoe, asks them to pick up a shipment of gold from a mining town in the Sawatch Range. A ruthless gang has other ideas for that gold, however, and they ambush Slash and Pecos. Not ones to back down from a fight, the two reprobates go after the bandits and they have a little extra help. A lady Pinkerton named Hatty Friendly—though she’s anything but—is also determined to recover the gold, even if that means teaming up with these two ornery old coots. 

In Luck and a Horse: A Western Duo by Max Brand, both stories center on cowardice. The titular character in “Traynor” is thought by everyone to be weak because he let Dr. Parker Channing steal his love, Rose Laymon, away from him. When the stage he is driving is robbed and his best friend and stage guard, Sam Whitney, is killed, Traynor chases the thief and recovers the man’s dropped Stetson, which was sold to Dr. Channing less than a month earlier. Traynor confronts Channing and the man takes off, but Traynor gives chase even with his physical weakness threatening to overwhelm him. In “Luck and a Horse,” Tommy Grant works on the farm of tyrant and master manipulator Sylvester Train—who hasn’t paid Tommy in nineteen months. Tommy balks when Train orders him to use his horse, Brownie, to plow. Instead, Tommy is sent to Fruit Dale with two wagons of grain and a shopping list. Tommy finds himself in a back room of the saloon playing cards with jailbird Bert Ellis who is in the sites of gunslinger Lefty Lew Hilton. When Ellis is shot in the middle of the poker game, Tommy finds himself on the run from a hundred posse men who have mistaken him as the killer. 

New Large Print Westerns for You

Peter Brandvold delivers the third book of his  Lou Prophet, Bounty Hunter Series with The Cost of Dying. Of all the legends of the Old West, few are as stained with ink, blood, and bullets as the violent days of bounty hunter Lou Prophet. But what happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? After a hard night with his sometime lover Louisa Bonaventure—“the Vengeance Queen”—Lou Prophet decides to cool his heels at a local honky-tonk. Things heat up fast when he defends one of the girls from a sadistic brute who also happens to be the deputy sheriff. And now Prophet is running for his life. Heading south of the border to Mexico, Prophet isn’t the only man marked for death. The young red-headed gunfighter Colter Farrow has made an awful lot of enemies, too—and now practically every bounty hunter south of the Rio Grande is gunning for blood. For money. For fun. And, now, for Lou Prophet.

Cutthroats is the first Slash and Pecos Western by William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone. After a lifetime of robbing banks and holding up trains, Jimmy "Slash" Braddock and Melvin "Pecos Kid" Baker are ready to call it quits. Sold out by their old gang, - The Snake River Marauders - Slash and Pecos have to bust out of jail and pull one last job to finance their early retirement. The target is a payroll train. Catch is, the train is carrying a Gatling gun and twenty deputy US marshals who know they're coming. The pair is caught and sentenced to hang, until their old enemy Marshal Luther Bledsoe shows up at the last minute to spare their lives. For a price. He'll let them live if they hunt down their old gang and kill those prairie rats.

Author John D. Nesbitt delivers Dusk Along the Niobrara. Dunbar, working on a ranch in the Niobrara country in Wyoming, connects the death of a hardscrabble homesteader with the death of an old horse trader some fifteen years earlier. As Dunbar goes to work on a corral project in town and then on fall roundup, more murders take place--a wandering drunk who has picked up gossip in an alehouse, and then the proprietor of the alehouse. People who know too much are being silenced. An old woman named Verona tells of an ancient crime on Old Woman Creek, where a sheepherder was killed and his partner escaped. In a final scene at the new shipping pens, Dunbar brings forth the witnesses, and a showdown erupts, with Dunbar bringing justice to the Niobrara country.

Rustle Up Some Westerns, Partner!

     This week I have decided to feature three of our new western novels from the Large Print collection.

   Shawn O’Brien, Town Tamer is a western novel by William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone. Not content to settle down on the family ranch in the New Mexico territory; Shawn O’Brien has a great deal of the wanderer in him. He also has a lightning-fast draw, eagle eyes, and a heightened sense of justice. Shawn has been making a reputation for himself all over the West by taking the most dangerous and lawless towns and making them safe for the good, honest citizens to live in peace. When Shawn is stranded in Holy Rood, Utah after a stagecoach accident, he doesn’t take long to realize he’s landed in one of the most vicious towns in the territory. He’s not worried though; after all, Shawn O’Brien is the town tamer.

   The Devil’s Posse is a novel by Charles G. West. Logan and Billy Cross have worked the same cattle drive since they were teenagers and have gained a reputation as being the most dependable of workers. Unfortunately, their boss has decided to retire and the brothers are soon to be out of a job. So the boys aren’t left twisting in the wind, the boss man sends them up to Fort Pierre in the Dakota Territory so they can join a horse drive to Sturgis. On their way to meet their prospective boss, Billy smiles at the wrong woman and draws the ire of Quincy Morgan and his gang of desperados.

     Shotgun Charlie is a Ralph Compton Novel by Matthew P. Mayo. Charlie Chilton is a young and naïve drifter who happens to be big for his age. Charlie is taken in by the leader of a band of small-time crooks who sees something of himself in the kindly, restless youth. When shady character Grady Haskell joins the gang and convinces them to pursue the biggest score of their lives, Charlie fails to thwart the heist and it turns bloody. Unfortunately, Charlie is the only gang member to be caught alive and he is sentenced to hang to the crime. Determined to prove his innocence, Charlie must escape, track down Haskell and the gang, and bring them to justice before he loses his own life.