This American author is renowned for his Western novels, which capture the rugged and often unjust realities of life on the American frontier. His works are characterized by strong characters and compelling narratives of courage, survival, and moral quandaries. The author delves into themes of justice and the inevitability of fate within wild landscapes. His writing is valued for its authenticity and its ability to evoke the atmosphere of the era.
Stories included: "The Woman from Cougar Creek""The Price of Pride""The Devil and Old Man Gillis""Shooting for a Fall""It's Hell to Be a Hero""The Tongue-Tied Cowboy""From Hell to Leadville""The Deputy with a Past""Judge Peterson's Colt Law""The Breaking of Sam McKay""Fugitive from the Boothill Brigade""The Man Ten Feet Tall"
Small ranchers in Harmony Oregon are up against it with the price of cattle down and Skull Ranch, owned by a syndicate, trying to buy them out. Dan Riley spends a month trying to find a bank to help them, but he fails. When the editor of The Clarion is shot, the ranchers blame Black Mike Sand, the manager of Skull, in spite of the circumstances of the shooting. As pressure mounts, Riley is determined to find out who is really in charge of the syndicate, and the only man willing to help him is Andrew Daniels, a former newspaper man whose courage comes from a bottle. Ex-gunman Rod Devers has started up a ranch, but small things going wrong on his land make him think someone might be trying to drive him out. In addition, the $2,000 he borrowed to buy his herd is coming due in a few months, and he refuses to marry his fiancée until he's debt free. His brother George ramrods the Spade, the biggest ranch in the area owned by Karl Hermann, who is on his way to Spade. The two-bit ranchers are convinced Hermann is coming to grab up all the land, and they organize a group of vigilantes, the 99, to protect themselves. When Rod refuses to join the 99 and accepts his brother's offer of a temporary job to protect Hermann and his daughter during their visit, the small ranchers turn against him.
Nugget City was a Colorado mining town that made the transition to a ranching community. But the transition wasn't easy and it left a lot of bad blood. A range war had been brewing for a while, and greed, gossip, and rage were threatening to blow the town apart. The last thing the town needed was a spark to set off the tinderbox.
Murdo Morgan returned to Paradise Valley, Oregon, expecting trouble. Sixteen years earlier, his father had planned to help hundreds of families settle in the valley. Not wanting to lose their spread, local ranchers had murdered Morgan's brothers and driven his family away.
Dirken&;s Hole never bothered the outlaws who wintered there if the outlaws didn&;t bother them. Then one young man broke this rule.
When you live the sort of life I do -- the life of a hired gun -- you start to figure you can handle any tough hand who comes along. But the tough hand I had to drill right between the eyes just happened to be a Flynn. And even though it was self-defense, there's no way his pa and the rest of the clan wouldn't come after me. In a wild race across the frozen prairie, their first bullet killed my horse and their second caught me right in the thigh. But it was what happened next that changed my life forever. . . .
A remarkable battles was fought at Beecher Island, Colorado, in 1868. Forty-nine untrained volunteers, two wounded officers, and a dying army doctor were nailed down on a sand-bar in a shallow river by more than a thousand Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Sioux.For the fourth day the squaws and children shrieked with blood-lust. Roman Nose gathered his warriors for yet another attack. And again the desperate men on Beecher Island levelled their rifles...
The narrative centers on Murdo Morgan, who returns to Paradise Valley after years away, motivated not by vengeance for his brothers' deaths but by his father's dream of establishing a thriving farming community. As the owner of the Cascade and Paradise Land Company, he faces opposition from Broad Clancy, the powerful figure controlling the region. Morgan's determination to fulfill his father's vision puts him at great personal risk, highlighting themes of legacy, ambition, and the struggle for land ownership in a hostile environment.
