"I can just imagine the questions in history," Fox said. "Who was our first president?' 'Who was known as The Great Emancipator?' Things like that. Come to think of it, maybe the second one's too hard. But you get the idea!" "Yeah," Burns said. "I get the idea." Hartley Gorman College, in Pecan City, Texas, is hardly a bastion of serious scholarship. The little Baptist school is more in¬terested in shielding its students from the evil influence of The World, The Flesh, and The Devil than in turning out future Nobelists. But its staff, by and large, is worthy of a more demanding institution; they are victims of a glutted market in Ph.D.s and they do the best they can. So it is they who are most upset at Dean Elmore's "secret plan" to award credit hours for "undirected study" by "independent scholars"—in plain words, to turn the school into a diploma mill. Which may be why Dean Elmore, shortly after unveiling his plan, is found blud-geoned to death at his desk. It is certainly why, at his funeral, there is not a wet eye in the house. Or so observes Carl Burns, Hartley Gorman professor of English literature, through whose eyes we see both the crime and the larger picture of this wacky denominational Texas school. Those readers familiar with Bill Crider's books about Sheriff Dan Rhodes of Blacklin County, Texas, knows how wryly witty this author can be; here the humor is revved up a few notches, and the resulting account of Elmore's murder, Sheriff "Boss" Napier's investigation, Bums's well-meant meddling, and the people and doings at Hartley Gorman are the exactly-right mix of realism and wackiness to make the book a delight as well as a suspenseful mystery. Views: 24
Jack Hare is an Easterner who has come west for his health. In Salt Lake City he is mistaken by Dene's outlaw gang for a spy and must flee the town to escape them. He is found suffering from exhaustion and exposure in rough country by the wealthy Mormon rancher August Naab. As he is nursed back to health at Naab's ranch, Hare becomes aware that Naab's holdings are being threatened by both Dene's rustlers and an unscrupulous Gentile land-grabber named Holderness.Hare also comes to know Mescal, originally an orphan of a Spanish father and Navajo mother, taken in by Naab and promised in marriage to his eldest son, Snap. August Naab does not believe in violent resistance to Holderness's incursions. To save Hare from Dene and his gang, Naab has him accompany Mescal to his sheep camp, located in an isolated valley fastness, and it is there that the two fall in love, even though Mescal knows that she is morally bound to marry Snap Naab.Packed with adventure, action, emotion,... Views: 23
Sequel to Victoria, Bride of Kansas....Maggie has an unexpected suitor—in a red suit.Schoolteacher Maggie O’Brien comes home for Christmas on a mission--to gather toys for orphans living on poor farms in Kansas. She's made her list, but there's no Santa in sight. Not until a local shopkeeper volunteers his services.Gordon Sumner sets his mind on winning the black-haired Irish beauty, but Maggie’s brother is his fiercest competitor, and O’Brien’s loyal sister gives him the cold shoulder. Undaunted, he comes up with a clever plan.Maggie sees through the fake Santa’s ploy, but with Christmas just around the corner, she’s running out of time to make the holiday happy for needy children. She accepts his help—with a plan of her own. She’ll play matchmaker and find her persistent suitor the perfect bride. Views: 23
From the bestselling author of Riders of the Purple Sage, comes another classic Western tale.The sun set across the purple sky over the Don Carlos Rancho while the warm Santa Fe breeze rustled through the grazing fields just off the trail. The Colonel sat on his porch, staring over the whole scene, pondering the seemingly-doomed future of his prized cattle ranch. Another spell with my heart like this last one will kill me," he said nervously to his right-hand man, Britt.Afraid it would break her, the Colonel kept his condition from his alienated daughter, Holly—who was shipped off to boarding school in the East at the tender age of eight. The Colonel would settle for nothing less than the best education for his daughter. Not to mention, the West—crawling with outlaws, thieves, and greed—was no place for a naïve, young woman.However, in the wake of the Colonel's death, Holly is forced to return and take the reins of her father's... Views: 23
The Taken By Cowboys series features ripped billionaire Cowboys, tanned rugged ranchers, a curvy heroine and steamy ménage romance! Jess Jones is sick of her stressful life in New York City. Desperate to escape life in the city, visits a guest ranch in Wyoming and is quickly introduced to two handsome cowboys that work on the ranch. Two cowboy hunks? Jess is in for two times the trouble! Views: 23
A Sweet, Clean, Historical Romance about a Mail-Order Bride set in Boston and Montana.Emma Byrne grew up in a Catholic orphanage in Boston, and her prospects are limited. She and her group of girlfriends, who all met in the orphanage, work as nannies, cooks, and live-in maids for rich familes and are barely getting by. When Emma's employer threatens her with losing her job if she doesn't submit to his very unwanted advances, she stumbles onto an opportunity to be a mail-order bride and decides that couldn't possibly be worse.Except that the groom in question has no idea that his brother sent for a wife. When Emma arrives at the train station in Bozeman, MT, it's her groom's brother, Joshua and his wife, Hannah, that are there to greet her. Ethan is furious that his brother went behind his back and sent for a wife. He's still grieving from the unexpected death of his wife only a year earlier, and spends all his free time being a good father to his only child, Emily, who is four.Montana is hugely different from Boston, and Emma is surprised that she immediately falls in love with the area. Though taken aback at first to discover that Ethan wasn't aware that she was coming, she's secretly relieved to have a little time to get to know him and her new home. She is also quite fascinated by his family. Ethan is the oldest of ten, and has eight brothers, all single except for Joshua. Emma develops an urge to play matchmaker and in book two, her best friend, Julia, comes West to meet the brothers. Views: 23
They are just about as bad and evil as outlaw gangs come. But in the end, they finally go straight.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. Views: 22
Two classic novels of the frontier, by Zane Grey, one of America's most celebrated Western storytellers The Lone Star Ranger Buck Duane, gunfighter, was offered a pardon by Captain Mac Kelly of the Texas Rangers, on one condition: Take down the local Chelsedine gang. Many had died trying, but it was Duane's only shot at freedom. When Duane teamed up with the Rangers for a final showdown against the ruthless rustlers, he discovered a secret that could destroy them all. The Mysterious RiderHis name is Hell Bent Wade, a wandering gunfighter and a good man, though one with a violent temper. But it isn't until he arrives at the Bellhounds Ranch, where Bill Bellhounds is about to marry off his foster daughter Columbine to Jack, a cowardly drunkard, gambler, and thief, that Wade reveals the full range of his righteous fury. At the publisher's... Views: 22
A soldier returns home to find his parents displaced and their property stolen in this classic Western.He leaned propped against the rail of the great ship, in an obscure place aft, shadowed by the life-boats. It was the second night out of Cherbourg and the first time for him to be on deck. The ridged and waved Atlantic, but for its turbulence, looked like the desert undulating away to the uneven horizon. The roar of the wind in the rigging bore faint resemblance to the wind in the cottonwoods at home—a sound that had haunted him for all the long years of his absence. There was the same mystery in the black hollows of the sea as from boyhood he had seen and feared in the gloomy gulches of the foothills."So begins Zane Grey's The Shepherd of Guadaloupe. After surviving the brutality of the First World War, Clifton Forrest returns home to find that his childhood home was stolen from his family. With his parents robbed of their property and the... Views: 22
A classic story of imperiled love on the western frontiers of nineteenth-century America.He was a young man in years, but he had the hard face and eagle eye of one matured in experience of that wild country. He bestrode a superb bay horse, dusty and travel-worn and a little lame. The rider was no light burden, judging from his height and wide shoulders; moreover, the saddle carried a canteen, a rifle, and a pack. From time to time he looked back over his shoulder at the magnificent long cliff wall, which resembled a row of colossal books with leaves partly open. It was the steady, watchful gaze of a man who had left events behind him."So begins Jim Wales's story in Robbers' Roost. While a battle rages between two outlaw gangs in a remote Utah canyon, Jim struggles to rescue Helen Herrick, who has been captured and held for ransom.Robbers' Roost tells the story of their personal struggle to escape the clutches of the murderous outlaws while... Views: 22
