With a lot of rustling going on in the area, tensions are high and rumors are flying.  Word is going around that some of the larger ranchers have hired a gunman named Wolf Carlton to stop the rustling and protect their cattle.  And now a couple of the small ranchers have been found shot to death.  Unfortunately for Spencer Prescott, some of the rumors are about him.  Some people think that Spencer, not Wolf, is the one killing the competition.  Even worse, some folks think Spencer is behind the rustling—and that means trigger-happy Wolf will be looking to put a bullet in his back.

2010 SPUR AWARD WINNER!

When Edward Dawes is a little boy, a stranger comes to the ranch and kills Pa-Pa, an older man who cares for Ed as a father would.  Ed remembers the killer, and when he grows up and sees the man again, he goes on a search to find out who the man is, where he comes from, and why he would kill Jake Bishop, or Pa-Pa.  Ed’s quest takes him first to a ranch where he learns to be a ranch hand, and then it takes him to Thunder Basin, where he lands a job on a big ranch where the killer works.  Ed also meets a girl named Ravenna, an orphan like himself, who doesn’t believe people should get away with injustice.  It takes Ed a while to get to the bottom of things, and whoever was behind the killing of Jake Bishop still has things to keep hidden.

2009 SPUR AWARD WINNER!

Will Dryden gets bailed out of jail by a woman who is looking for her husband and would like Dryden to find him.  Will agrees to look for the man, and his search leads him to the Redstone Ranch, where a young cowhand has been recently murdered.  As Dryden continues to search, he looks for connections between the missing husband, the dead cowhand, and a couple of more bodies that turn up.  He makes a few friends along the way, not least among them an older ranch hand and a girl who works in the kitchen, who help him learn more about what might be behind the Trouble at the Redstone.

When Wilf Kasmire is asked to guide some hunters on a newcomer’s ranch, he doesn’t think anything is up.  After all, he wants to try to make a living as a guide and outfitter so he can enjoy the outdoor life he loves.  As he goes about his work, he is nagged by the disappearance of a young woman he used to spend time with, and no one seems to be trying very hard to find her.  Ultimately, the two questions come together: does Wilf want to keep on selling the gifts of nature to arrogant clients, and what happened to Heather Lea?

Devon Frost is an artist who has come to an isolated place in New Mexico Territory to take impressions and make sketches of old buildings.  As he does so, he gets caught up in a local intrigue in which the master of a hacienda intimidates the suitors of his stepdaughter.  One of the suitors turns up dead, and even though it becomes evident that the young woman’s stepfather has an obsession for her, suspicion falls most strongly on the other suitor.  Nobody seems to want to scratch very deep, however, until Devon takes the initiative to help the man he thinks is wrongly accused.

2008 SPUR AWARD FINALIST!

This is the third in a mini-series about Jimmy Clevis, the good-natured narrator who appeared earlier in Rancho Alegre and Red Wind Crossing.  In this novel, Jimmy sets out to find a missing man.  His travels take him to Wyoming, where he comes to the small town of Raven Springs and a couple of roadside inns.  People seem to disappear in this place, and in the course of Jimmy’s stay, he has to untangle the threads of missing persons, altered identity, greed, and murder.

Lane Weller is a man who is looking for something bigger than himself to believe in.  He finds it with Cora McGavin, a woman who is also looking for something more than she has in life now.  Unfortunately, Cora is married, and her husband is a bullying sort who always wants things done his way.  As a result, Lane becomes something of an outcast, riding the lonesome range.  Through the course of events, he has to decide whether his love with Cora is the real thing or just something to lie about.  This is a bold novel, written along classic lines, about a man and a woman who fall in love in Wyoming.

This is a book of hard-crafted fiction set in the contemporary West, stories about life and love, loss and death, with a few laughs along the way.  In selections such as “Cowboy Heart,” “Ice on the Doorstep,” “Chokecherries Are Free,” “Drunk on Christmas Day,” and “Dusk on the Rangeland,” the book captures the spirit of people who tough it out in a world both modern in its problems and timeless in its landscape.  This collection has all the fine features that have won praise for John D. Nesbitt’s earlier novels and short stories. 

Jimmy Clevis is out of work and needs some money.  So when an old man named Tull asks him to do a quick job for him, Clevis agrees.  All Clevis has to do is head south to Paloma Springs to find Tull’s son.  Sounds like easy money, right?  Wrong.  Clevis isn’t just riding into Paloma Springs—-he’s riding straight into a tangled net of lies, stealing, blackmail, hidden identities . . . and murder.

Vance Coolidge always said a man should have a chance to get even when he's been done wrong. And he's certainly been done wrong in his life. So when his friend Tip asked for his help in going after the men who killed Tip's brother, Vance agreed to join him. But Vance doesn't completely trust some of the other men riding with them, and as the chase wears on he'll find out that vengeance and righting wrongs can be a tricky—and dangerous—business.

Clevis always says that when he sees a pretty girl walking down the street and looking over her shoulder, he pays attention, especially if she is walking fast. From the time he sees Helen hurrying down the street, Clevis knows she is in some sort of trouble. First he is curious. Then he wants to help. But helping Helen is no simple matter, as he soon finds out. She is trapped in a dark web of lies, deceit . . . and murder. And the more he tries to help her, the more the sticky strands of that web snare Clevis too. Clevis knows there has to be a way to free both of them. He just has to find it while they are still alive.

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Braden isn't looking for trouble. He is just a ranch hand, out looking for stray horses. But trouble finds him. He hears about someone doing something pretty low and getting away with it, and it starts to work on his mind. Then the man who told him is found dead. Lots of folks would just turn away from it, forget about it and move on. But Braden isn't most folks. No, he has to look into it a little. That is his first mistake. The more he looks, the more he finds—and the more trouble finds him. Till pretty soon, all his digging uncovers a lot more than he ever imagined. And a lot more than some powerful people think is safe.

Tom Atkins is out of work. So when the Norden brothers ride into his camp one night and offer him a job, he figures he might as well accept. The Norden boys are nice enough and they just bought a small ranch nearby. All things considered, Atkins could do worse. But gradually, as time goes by, Atkins begins to notice things. Small things, but troubling. Some of the folks in town don't seem too friendly to anyone from the Norden ranch. And some of their neighbors are downright rude and insulting. Small things have a tendency to become big things, though, and it won't be long before Tom Atkins realizes exactly what he got himself into when he hired on to work for the Norden boys.