Classic Western adventure from America’s favorite storyteller Louis L’Amour

Louis L’Amour brings you the Wild West as you’ve never heard it before. This classic story, complete with a full cast, stirring music and authentic sound effects, sweeps listeners back to the rough and tumble days of the old West — when men put their lives on the line for the sake of honor, and truth and justice were fought on the open plain.

A gun for Kilkenny

A dusty stranger comes into the town of Boquilla in search of a drink after many hard weeks riding the trails. He enters the saloon, and within minutes the town bully is dead on the floor. Who is the stranger? Is he John Wesley Hardin? Or the legendary Marshal Kilkenny? Speculation and admiration run through the town like wildfire.

To show their gratitude, the townsfolk persuade the stranger to stay awhile. All the free whiskey he can drink and the finest hotel room in town are only the beginning of the good life for this man, more accustomed to the cold hard ground and meals of greasy bacon and biscuits.

The attractions of the dangerous stranger are also irresistible to the pretty young women in town. But the stranger’s luck cannot continue. Someone suspects that he is not who he pretends to be. After all, according to legend, Kilkenny always leaves town after killing the bad guy. Why would he stick around this time?

Don’t miss the other exciting dramatizations of Louis L’Amour short stories!

Early in Louis L’Amour’s career, he wrote a number of novel-length stories for “pulp” western magazines. “I lived with my characters so closely that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared went out of print,” he said. “I wanted to tell the reader more about my people and why they did what they did.” So he revised and expanded these magazine works to be published again as full-length novels. Here is one of his early creations, which have long been a source of great speculation and curiosity among his fans.

A Man Called Trent opens on nester Dick Moffitt lying dead where he was killed by King Bill Hale’s riders. His son Jack and adopted daughter Sally, who witnessed the murder, go for safety to a cabin owned by a man called “Trent”–an alias for Kilkenny, who is seeking to escape his reputation as a gunfighter.

Here are two exciting stories featuring Lance Kilkenny by beloved Western writer Louis L’Amour

In “A Man Called Trent,” nester Dick Moffitt lies dead, killed by King Bill Hale’s riders. His son Jack and adopted daughter Sally, who witnessed the murder, go for safety to a cabin owned by a man called “Trent”–an alias for Kilkenny, who is seeking to escape his reputation as a gunfighter.

In “The Rider of Lost Creek,” Lance Kilkenny is the fastest gun in the West, but once the gunfight is over, he disappears. Some time back, Mort Davis saved Kilkenny’s life. Now Davis needs Kilkenny’s help with a pair of feuding ranchers taking over his property.

Set in New Mexico, A Man Called Trent opens to a nester named Dick Moffitt lying dead where he was killed by King Bill Hale’s riders. Sally Crane, who is sixteen and was adopted by Moffitt, and Moffitt’s fourteen-year-old Jack witnessed the murder from their hiding place.

A Mule for Santa Fe
Scott Miles and his son Billy are on their way to a new life in New Mexico, but fate deals them a bad hand in the deceptive currents of the Missouri River. Their wagon nearly splintered, one mule of their team lost in the river, Scott and his boy have almost no chance of joining the last wagon train heading out before winter closes in. But Scott wasn’t counting on a miracle – in the form of a strong-willed woman and the unwavering faith of a young boy.

Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie is a good man to have on your side and a bad man to have on your trail. When an anonymous note alerts him to an impending bank robbery, he rides into a blazing gun battle. Minutes later, one robber lies wounded, and two others lie dead in the street. Inside the bank, two more are found dead, including the banker–but not by Bowdrie’s hand. It looks like there was a fifth man involved, who committed cold-blooded murder, then arranged for the Texas Ranger to dispense with the rest of his gang. But the cunning outlaw’s quick getaway won’t get him far enough–not with Chick Bowdrie breathing down his neck.

Rain on a Mountain Fork
Lawman, manhunter, peacemaker–it takes a hard breed of man to survive as a Texas Ranger, but Chick Bowdrie stands head and shoulders above the rest. The rough trails are his home. 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. He rides in the name of justice, but he lives by his own law. And if you’re thinking about walking on the wrong side of Bowdrie’s Law, you’d better start running. Fast.

A Ranger Rides to Town
Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie is a good man to have on your side and a bad man to have on your trail. When an anonymous note alerts him to an impending bank robbery, he rides into a blazing gun battle. Minutes later, one robber lies wounded, and two others lie dead in the street. Inside the bank, two more are found dead, including the banker–but not by Bowdrie’s hand. It looks like there was a fifth man involved, who committed cold-blooded murder, then arranged for the Texas Ranger to dispense with the rest of his gang. But the cunning outlaw’s quick getaway won’t get him far enough–not with Chick Bowdrie breathing down his neck.

Down Sonora Way
Chick Bowdrie and Tensleep Mooney, a tough, wily, Wyoming cowhand, are locked in a stalemate with nothing between them but sixty yards and a Winchester.

Then a wounded man, a woman, and two bedraggled kids appeared in the distance, and just behind, the large dust cloud that meant Apaches. Bowdrie and Mooney could have played it safe, stayed hidden and let it happen. But suddenly the outlaw and the lawman became a crack team against a cruel enemy stalking helpless victims–two men for whom justice had taken a crazy turn.

Young Mike Bastian was raised to be an outlaw. Now it is time for him to take over a crooked empire from his adoptive father, Ben Curry. But Bastian isn’t sure he wants to be a cow rustler-especially after he meets the enchanting Drusilla Ragan. Can he defy Curry’s legacy of crime? Bastian finds out the surest test of a man is whether he can walk alone.

Let Louis L’Amour introduce you to the real West.  In this exclusive audio you’ll hear his firsthand observations on gunfighting and learn some of the finer–and deadlier–points of frontier etiquette.  You’ll also hear more of Louis L’Amour’s exciting, real-life tales of the Texas Rangers!

Join famed Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie as he tracks the notorious John Queen, wanted for murder and kidnapping.  Riding under an alias, Bowdrie joins up with Queen’s ruthless gang to rescue the pretty niece of a powerful Texas judge.  But when Queen discovers the lawman’s true identity, Bowdrie must do some fast thinking and even faster shooting to beat the odds–five guns to one!

A Trail to the West
Riding under an alias, Bowdrie joins up with Queen’s ruthless gang to rescue the pretty niece of a powerful Texas judge. But when Queen discovers the lawman’s true identity, Bowdrie must do some fast thinking and even faster shooting to beat the odds–five guns to one!

Love and the Cactus Kid
Folks far and wide know that the Cactus Kid can handle a pistol with the best of them. But for all his skill and coolness under fire, there’s just one small weakness he can’t seem to overcome—and it may prove the death of him.

Medicine Ground
The Cactus Kid is on his way to the spring dance to meet his best girl, Bess O’Neal. As the Kid ambles through the lonely mountain trail toward town, two men emerge from the darkness—Miguel and Lobo Fernandez, of the menacing Fernandez brothers. And what they want from the Cactus Kid is vengeance.

Rock Bannon, wounded in an Indian attack, is rescued by a wagon train heading to Oregon. He has fully recovered when the train pulls into a fort to stock up on supplies. It is there that the leaders of the train meet Morton Harper, a smooth-talking man who persuades them to take an easier trail that will allow them to escape an attack by Indians. Bannon knows that there will be no escape from attack on that route and that it will lead the train directly onto Hardy Bishop’s vast ranching domain. Either way, and probably both, it will mean war–a war the pioneers will undoubtedly lose.

Bannon first appeared in Giant Western (Winter 1948) under the title Showdown Trail. L’Amour subsequently reworked and expanded this story into The Tall Stranger, published as an original paperback in 1957. The expanded story was filmed as The Tall Stranger (Allied Artists, 1957), directed by Thomas Carr and starring Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo.

From the American West to the Siberian coast, from Hollywood to the boxing ring, here are timeless tales of war, mystery, romance, crime, and punishment as only Louis L’Amour can tell them.

These stories are vintage L’Amour:
• A hard-bitten cattle driver is pitted against a man trying to steal his woman, the disappearance of a thousand head of cattle, and a plot to frame him for murder. . . .
• A private eye visits a remote mining town on a case involving a sexy widow, an uneasy lawman, and a fortune in gold buried in an abandoned mine shaft. . . .
• A country boy with a good right hand must fight not only his vicious opponent in the ring but the ruthless gangsters who’ll do anything for profit-even commit cold-blooded murder. . . .
• A young woman stranded in an isolated harbor must survive the wilderness and a brutal battle of wits with a sadistic fortune hunter. . . .

Here is the trademark blend of action, suspense, historical detail, and unforgettable characters that have made Louis L’Amour one of the world’s most extraordinary writers.

Louis L’Amour said the West was no place for the frightened or the mean. It was a “big country needing big men and women to live in it.” The two stories in this collection provide a good sample of the kinds of people he had in mind.

“Ride, You Tonto Raiders”

Matt Sabre is a young and experienced gunfighter–but not a trouble seeker. However, when Billy Curtin calls him a liar and goes for his gun, Matt has no choice but to draw and fire. To his surprise, the dying man gives him $5,000 and begs him to take the money to his wife, who is alone in defending the family ranch in the Mogollons. A combination of guilt, regret, and wanting to do the right thing leads Matt Sabre to make that ride.

“War Party”

A boy on the brink of manhood, a resourceful frontier woman who has beauty as well as fortitude, and a strong male character who is single and therefore marriageable come together in this powerful, romantic, and strangely compelling vision of the American West. This is a tale of gunfighters, travelers, homesteaders, and adventurers, of men and women making tough decisions and fighting battles that could kill–or open up a bold new future on the American frontier.

Louis L’Amour said that the West was no place for the frightened or the mean. It was a “big country needing big men and women to live in it.” Here are three more of his fine short stories about the West.

West of the Tularosa Ruth Kermitt, owner of the Tumbling K ranch, made a deal with old Tom McCracken, owner of the Firebox spread, to buy his ranch. That’s why the Tumbling K’s foreman, Ward McQueen, and some of the Tumbling K crew have come to take possession. But in a deserted bunkhouse on the Firebox, they find the body of Jimmy McCracken, son of the former owner, who was clearly killed in a gunfight. Then, Sheriff Bill Foster shows up with a posse. Riding with that posse is Neal Webb, who claims that he owns the Firebox and that he’s got a transfer deed signed by Jimmy McCracken conveying that ownership. Webb seizes the opportunity to accuse Ward McQueen and his men of killing McCracken in order to claim possession of the Firebox. Despite his innocence, McQueen sees that he will have a tough time staying out of jail long enough to discover who the real killers are.

Home in the Valley Steve Mehan had accomplished what many had believed to be impossible. He had taken cattle from the home range in Nevada to California in the dead of winter. Not only that, he had been successful in selling them. Now the money from the sale is on deposit with the Dake & Company bank in Sacramento. That $24,000 will save all five ranches in Paiute Valley that had supplied cattle for the drive. Mehan is feeling good about all of this when, to his shock, he reads in the newspaper that Dake & Company has failed. And there is one nasty hombre who is mighty happy to hear this. He sneeringly tells Mehan that those ranchers have lost out and since they can’t pay their debt–and he will become the new owner. But Mehan isn’t ready to give up. There is a bank branch in Portland, Oregon, and if Mehan can get to it and withdraw the money before the steamer boat heading for Portland arrives with the news of the bank failure, he wins. To do that, Mehan will have to start out immediately, hoping for stamina, luck, and a long relay of good horses to cover those hundreds of miles.

West Is Where the Heart Is Jim London is on his way home. During the four years of the War between the States, he has not been home, seen his wife, Jane, or been able to send word of his whereabouts. For all she knew, he was dead. Fellows have told him she wouldn’t have waited for him, but London believes differently. Then, just two hundred miles from home, London comes across a burned-out wagon train. Nine wagons had been hit by the Comanches, and they left only a ruin behind: overturned wagons, dead livestock, ransacked belongings, and dead bodies strewn on the ground. Yet Jim discovers that not everyone is dead. He finds little Betty Jane, a five-year-old who had been able to hide successfully during the attack. The only thing to be done is for him to take her along with him. But during their journey, he discovers that the child knows something that no one else does.

Louis L’Amour said that the West was no place for the frightened or the mean. It was a “big country needing big men and women to live in it.” This volume presents five more of L’Amour’s fine short stories about the West, restored according to how they first appeared in their initial publication in magazines.

“Riding for the Brand” Jed Asbury was stripped naked by Indians and forced to run the gauntlet. He ran it better than they had expected and escaped with only a few minor wounds. Still on the dodge, Jed encounters a covered wagon in which the horses and humans have been killed, the wagon and its contents left to stand. He is able to outfit himself from clothes and guns he finds in the wagon, and in the process he learns what the intentions were of those who had driven the wagon–and the possible reason they were killed. Jed decides to push forward and accomplish precisely what they had intended to do.

“Four Card Draw” Allen Ring drew four cards in a poker game with Ben Taylor, and he won a small ranch. The ranch cabin sits on a low ledge of grass backed up against a cliff of red rock, with a spring not more than fifty feet away. The ranch is all he had ever hoped to have. Only it isn’t going to be that simple. Ross Bilton, the town marshal, shows up with two deputies and tells Allen that, whether he has a deed or not, no one is allowed to live on the ranch. A killing had taken place there years before and remains unsolved. But that’s not enough to persuade Allen to leave.

“His Brother’s Debt” Rock Casady is considered a coward. When gunman Ben Kerr issued a challenge, Casady fled rather than stick around to fight. He rode on to new range and got himself a job. He did well at it, but everyone noticed that he avoided going to town, and he avoided people. That was before Sue Landon, niece of the ranch’s owner, asked Rock to accompany her to town to make some necessary purchases. Though that might mean a confrontation with rustler and hardcase Pete Vorys, Rock agrees. However, minding his own business proves ineffective when Vorys decides that this stranger has to be cut down to size.

“The Turkeyfeather Riders” Jim Sandifer swings down from his buckskin and stands for a long minute, staring across the saddle toward the dark bulk of Bearwallow Mountain. For three years he has been riding for the B Bar, and for two of those years he has been ranch foreman. Now he knows that what he is about to do will bring an end to that, an end to his life here, to his chance to win the girl he loves. He stopped a raid by some B Bar men on the Katrischen spread, and now he has to tell the B Bar’s owner what he did–and suffer the consequences.

“The Nester and the Paiute” The Paiute is the local bad man. But as bad as his rustling and killing has been, Sheriff Todd had never caught him with real evidence and so could only keep his eye on the Paiute, hope to catch him in the act. That was before the nester rode in, looking for the Paiute. Sheriff Todd is out of town, but that doesn’t matter to the nester. He’s been following the Paiute’s tracks all the way here and now wants to know where he lives. That’s easily told, but Sheriff Todd isn’t going to like it if there’s a shoot-out between the nester and the Paiute. What no one knows is that the sheriff has already run into the Paiute, and that the Paiute has finished him. For the Paiute, this has become the end game.

Bill Carey Rides West
Life on an Ohio farm couldn’t hold young Bill Carey.  He wanted the adventure he knew waited in the territories to the west.  He’d drifted into the outlaw life, and now he found himself shot up, a lawman on his trail, holed up on a small farm near the lair of Tabat Ryerson.  Ryerson, the man who’d introduced him to cattle rustling and bank robbery, a cold-blooded killer.  The man who’d turned the sweet young woman who’d saved Carey’s life into an unwilling accomplice.  On a remote little farm, Carey’s caught between both sides of the law, and he finds a reason for staying alive in a rancher’s pretty daughter.

This three-story collection includes:

Bill Carey Rides West
Life on an Ohio farm couldn’t hold young Bill Carey.  He wanted the adventure he knew waited in the territories to the west.  He’d drifted into the outlaw life, and now he found himself holed up on a small farm near the lair of Tabat Ryerson. Ryerson, the man who’d introduced him to cattle rustling and bank robbery, a cold-blooded killer. On a remote little farm, Carey’s caught between both sides of the law, and he finds a reason for staying alive in a rancher’s pretty daughter.

The Town No Guns Could Tame
Basin City is a place where no respectable citizen feels safe. That’s why three of the town’s foremost businessmen have gone and hired a new marshal. Tomorrow he’ll be in charge of protecting a stagecoach carrying over a quarter million dollars in gold. For Perry, a gunfighter on the run, this job should have turned his life around. Instead, it’s landed him in a peck of trouble. 

Bowdrie Rides a Coyote Trail
On the trail of a ruthless killer named Carl Dyson, Ranger Chick Bowdrie finds the body of a rough-riding Californian left to rot in the sun. With the dead man’s horse in tow, Bowdrie ambles into the middle of a dispute between the H&H ranch and the Darcy spread. Seems some H&H hired guns are giving Jack Darcy a hard time . . . and leading the troublemakers is ranch owner Rack Herman. Will Bowdrie travel far to track down Dyson . . . or is this killer closer than he thinks?

The Black Rock Coffin Makers

Cattleman Jum Gatlin isn’t the kind of man who goes looking for a fight. But he never turns away when one comes looking for him. And that’s just what happens when he finds himself mistaken for another man – a man who has some very dangerous enemies.

Like it or not, Gatlin is a dead ringer for the only man in town who stands between the ruthless Wing Carey and the ownership of the XY Ranch. Framed for the murder of the real Jim Walker, Gatlin suddenly finds himself the town’s most wantd man. Now he must clear his name and help a pretty young firebrand by putting his own bid on the XY . . . with a pair of blazing six-shooters.

This exclusive full-cast dramatization, complete with stirring music and authentic sound effects, brings to life Tell Sackett, an honest, two-fisted cowboy.

Tell Sackett knew that gold spelled trouble faster than anything except a woman, and he had a lot of gold.  Problem was, none of it was his.  Tell was just delivering the gold for a fee.  The Coopers, a gang of bloodthirsty desperadoes who’d slit a man’s throat for the silver filling in his teeth, were hot on his trail.

So, the last thing Tell needed was Christine Mallory, a pretty, stuck-up city woman, to slow him down.  Taking her on could easily cost Tell his life.  But it was that or leave her in the desert to die.  As Tell Sackett’s father used to say, “Women are trouble.”  Tell was about to learn what he meant.

The marshal’s name was Borden Chantry. Young, lean, rugged, he’s buried a few men in this two-bit cow town—every single one killed in a fair fight. Then, one dark, grim day a mysterious gunman shot a man in cold blood. Five grisly murders later, Chantey was faced with the roughest assignment of his life—find that savage, trigger-happy hard case before he blasts apart every man in town . . . one by bloody one.

As part of the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures series, this edition contains exclusive bonus materials!

The marshal’s name was Borden Chantry. Young, lean, rugged, he’s buried a few men in this two-bit cow town—every single one killed in a fair fight. Then, one dark, grim day a mysterious gunman shot a man in cold blood. Five grisly murders later, Chantey was faced with the roughest assignment of his life—find that savage, trigger-happy hard case before he blasts apart every man in town . . . one by bloody one.

Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives.
 
In Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volumes 1 and 2, Beau L’Amour takes the reader on a guided tour through many of the finished and unfinished short stories, novels, and treatments that his father was never able to publish during his lifetime. L’Amour’s never-before-seen first novel, No Traveller Returns, faithfully completed for this program, is a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas.

Bowdrie Follows a Cold Trail

When Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie rides into a long-abandoned ranch, he discovers the skeleton of its owner. All signs indicate that he was murdered years before, and that his wife and young daughter were taken away by force. Bowdrie vows to bring the killer to justice and to track down the whereabouts of the missing women. The cold trail leads to a hot lead in the town of Gabel’s Stop, where a hardcase rancher has been waiting sixteen years for the payoff of a lifetime.

Bowdrie Passes Through

Ride with the legendary Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie as he takes up the cause of Josh Pettibone, a stubborn loner who faces the hangman’s noose. Bugs Tatum wants Pettibone’s land–and he’s willing to do anything to get it. But Bowdrie can not rest until justice is served!

Bowdrie Passes Through

Ride with the legendary Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie as he takes up the cause of Josh Pettibone, a stubborn loner who faces the hangman’s noose. Bugs Tatum wants Pettibone’s land–and he’s willing to do anything to get it. But Bowdrie can not rest until justice is served!

Where Buzzards Fly

Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie tracks the killers of an infamous Mexican outlaw, Zaparo and fourteen of his desperadoes. With only the slightest clues to the ruthless ambush, Bowdrie is led to the K-Bar Ranch, and the beautiful girlfriend of the last living member of Zaparo’s gang–only to find his prime suspect is a man closer to the Texas Rangers than he ever dreamed.

No Man’s Man

Passion drives Lou Morgan to the town of Battle Basin–passion and the promise of $5000. For in this dusty town lives the wildly irresistible Nana Maduro, the woman Morgan loved enough to kill for, the woman who walked away from him without a word. Now, butter but still caught in her spell, Morgan hires on with one of Nana’s suitors to eliminate that man’s rival. But when Morgan finds himself the target of two brutal killers, he can’t help but wonder what Nana’s admirers are really after…or if he’ll live to find out.

Bowdrie Rides a Coyote Trail

On the trail of a ruthless killer named Carl Dyson, Ranger Chick Bowdrie finds the body of a rough-riding Californian, dry gulched and left to rot in the sun. With the dead man’s horse in tow, Bowdrie ambles into the middle of a dispute between the H&H ranch and the Darcy spread. Seems some H&H hired guns are giving Jack Darcy a hard time . . . and leading the troublemakers is ranch owner Rack Herman, strangely in the middle of many a run-in.

But with the help of some friendly locals, Bowdrie pieces together a puzzle of murder, corruption, and the shady dealings of a power hungry rancher. Will Bowdrie travel far to track down Dyson . . . or is this killer closer than he thinks?

Major James Brionne brought Dave Allard to trial for murder. Just before the hanging, Dave swore his brothers would take vengenance. Four year later the Allard boys retumed to settle the score. Only Brionne’s son escaped. They murdered his wife, destroyed his home, and left Brionne nothing but the charred ruins of his past to haunt him. Seeking peace and a new life, Brionne and the boy headed west. But the Allards hadn’t finished with him. He knew they’d call him for a showdown—and this time he’d be ready.

Case Closed — No Prisoners

Ride with legendary Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie as he helps out a small town with a big problem. Someone has brutally murdered the local banker and made off with forty thousand dollars–and it appears to be the work of a criminal who knows his way around town.

The classic Western, now newly repackaged as part of Bantam’s Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures program–with never-before-seen material from Louis and his son, Beau L’Amour.

It was just a godforsaken mountainside, but no place on earth was richer in silver. For a bustling, enterprising America, this was the great bonanza. The dreamers, the restless, the builders, the vultures–they were lured by the glittering promise of instant riches and survived the brutal hardships of a mining camp to raise a legendary boom town. But some sought more than wealth. Val Trevallion, a loner haunted by a violent past. Grita Redaway, a radiantly beautiful actress driven by an unfulfilled need. Two fiercely independent spirits, together they rose above the challenges of the Comstock to stake a bold claim on the future.

Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives.
 
In Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 1 and Volume 2, Beau L’Amour takes the reader on a guided tour through many of the finished and unfinished short stories, novels, and treatments that his father was never able to publish during his lifetime. L’Amour’s never-before-seen first novel, No Traveller Returns, faithfully completed for this program, is a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas.
 
Additionally, many beloved classics will be rereleased with an exclusive Lost Treasures postscript featuring previously unpublished material, including outlines, plot notes, and alternate drafts. These postscripts tell the story behind the stories that millions of readers have come to know and cherish.

As far as the eye can see is a vast, empty horizon. Evie Teale has finally accepted that her husband won’t be coming home. To make ends meet she runs a temporary stage station. But though she is diligent and careful, Evie must prepare for the day when the passengers no longer come and she must protect her children in an untamed country where’s it’s far easier to die than to live.

Miles away, another solitary soul battles for survival. Conagher is a lean, dark-eyed drifter who is not about to let a gang of rustlers push him around. While searching the isolated canyons for missing cattle, he finds notes tied to tumbleweeds rolling with the wind. The bleak, spare words echo Conagher’s own whispered prayers for companionship. Who is this mysterious woman on the other side of the wind? Conagher only hopes he can stay alive long enough to find her.

Each of the three stories in this boxed set is an exciting dramatization of a Louis L’Amour short story featuring all the excitement of the Old West — deadly gunslingers, dusty trails, men and woman living on the edge in a brutal landscape — each presented with authentic sound effects, dramatic music, and a full cast.

Rafe Caradec—gambler, wanderer, soldier of fortune—was as hard a man as the battlefields and waterfronts of Latin America could fashion, but he was as good as his word. As Charles Rodney lay dying in a dank ship’s fo’c’sle, Rafe swore to make sure that Rodney’s Wyoming ranch went to his daughter, Ann. In Painted Rock, Wyoming, Caradec found land for a man to love, miles of rolling grasslands and towering mountains. He also found that one of the most ruthless men in the territory had set his sights on both Rodney’s ranch and his daughter. But Rafe Caradec had given his word, and once he’d looked deep into Ann Rodney’s eyes, nothing short of death would stop him from keeping the promise he’d made.

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.

A trio of Western stories by Louis L’Amour

In “Black Rock,” Jim Gatlin, a Texas trail driver, arrives in the town of Tucker where he finds himself quickly drawn into the middle of an all-out battle for the XY Ranch when, due to a case of mistaken identity, he kills the segundo of Wing Cary’s Flying C Ranch. Gatlin is a dead-ringer for Jim Walker, who, like Cary, wants control of the XY. Gatlin is thrown into a situation in which all he can do but fight for his life.

Seventeen-year-old Shandy Gamble in “Gamble of the KT” is in Perigord with plans to buy a new saddle and bridle with the $500 in reward money he had received for catching two horse thieves, but instead he gets conned out of the money. He returns to the KT Ranch never mentioning what happened. But when he learns the con man is back and hanging out with the June gang, he decides it’s time to get his money back and even the score.

Always a fighting man, both for the US Army and in battles across the ocean, Tom Kedrick in “Showdown Trail” has been hired to help run off the squatters and outlaws occupying a strip of land claimed to be unusable swamp. When he learns that he is being misled by his new bosses and that the squatters are honest and hardworking settlers, including one of his father’s old friends, he has to determine which side he will fight for.

Louis L’Amour is the most decorated author in the history of American letters, and his stories are loved the world over.

Desert Death Song

Powder Basin – the broken, rugged country at the edge of a dry, forbidding desert – holds more hiding places than most men could find. Nat Bodine knows most of them; holed up in the Basin hills by a posse of over a hundred men, he needs them more than ever before. Jim Morton knows that if anyone is going to escape this posse, it’s Bodine, just as he knows that Bodine is the kind of man who wouldn’t commit the crime of which he’s accused – and who, if forced, would seek his freedom in the savage desert sands.

Down Sonora Way
Chick Bowdrie and Tensleep Mooney, a tough, wily, Wyoming cowhand, are locked in a stalemate with nothing between them but sixty yards and a Winchester.

Then a wounded man, a woman, and two bedraggled kids appeared in the distance, and just behind, the large dust cloud that meant Apaches. Bowdrie and Mooney could have played it safe, stayed hidden and let it happen. But suddenly the outlaw and the lawman became a crack team against a cruel enemy stalking helpless victims–two men for whom justice had taken a crazy turn.

Everyone was dead. Indian raiders massacred the entire wagon train. Only seven-year-old Hardy Collins and three-year-old Betty Sue Powell, managed to survive. With a knife, a faithful stallion, and the survival lessons his father taught him, Hardy must face the challenges of the open prairie as they head west in search of help. Using ingenuity and common sense, Hardy builds shelters, forages for food, and learns to care for Betty Sue. But their journey through this hostile wilderness is being tracked by even more hostile men. And, as he struggles to keep them alive, Hardy realizes that their survival may depend on his ability to go far beyond what his father had been able to teach him.

Down the Pogonip Trail

Jeff Kurland didn’t have a gun. Jeff Kurland didn’t have a chance. The rancher knew that even as he scanned the cabin for a weapon, any weapon. He was trapped with a killer who had a pistol in his hand and a bounty on his head. And outside, the pogonip swirled and fell, an icy blanket of fog that settled like a shroud over every living thing. Death would creep into the cabin with the bone-chilling cold or slice through him with the speed of a bullet. Either way, time was running out . . . for both of them.

This collection of six exciting Western stories from early in Louis L’Amour’s career begins with “Fork Your Own Broncs,” in which Mac Marcy, who had saved for seven years to run his own small cattle ranch, sees his dream come true, only to have it threatened by Jingle Bob Kenyon.

In “Keep Travelin’, Rider,” Tack Gentry returns to Sunbonnet and his uncle’s G Bar Ranch only to find that his uncle, a Quaker, has been killed in a gunfight. A faction has moved in and run roughshod over the town and the ranches, including the G Bar.

In “McQueen of the Tumbling K,” ranch foreman Ward McQueen looks out for his boss, Ruth Kermitt. When Jim Yount shows up at the Tumbling K looking to buy cattle to stock worthless land he won in a poker game, McQueen can’t help but question his true intentions.

In “Four Card Draw,” Allen Ring wins the Red Rock Ranch in a poker game, but he soon finds that he has stepped into a hotbed of fear and danger; several years back, Sam Hazlitt was killed on the Red Rock, and his record book–which could discredit many of the ranchers–went missing.

In “Mistakes Can Kill You,” Johnny O’Day had accounted for six dead men by the time he turned seventeen. Close to death from pneumonia, he’s taken in by the Redlins. O’Day pays the family back by staying on and working, but now he must decide whether to leave or risk his life to save their biological son, Sam.

In “Showdown on the Tumbling T,” after two years in Mexico, Wat Bell runs into his cousin, whom he considers his best friend, only to learn he’s been blamed for the death of their uncle. Although his cousin offers to help, a series of events makes Bell suspect something much more sinister is going on.

His father killed by the British and his home burned, young Tatton Chantry left Ireland to make his fortune and regain the land that was rightfully his. Schooled along the way in the use of arms, Chantry arrives in London a wiser and far more dangerous man. He invests in trading ventures, but on a voyage to the New World his party is attacked by Indians and he is marooned in the untamed wilderness of the Carolina coast. It is in this darkest time, when everything seems lost, that Chantry encounters a remarkable opportunity. . . . Suddenly all his dreams are within reach: extraordinary wealth, his family land, and the heart of a Peruvian beauty. But first he must survive Indians, pirates, and a rogue swordsman who has vowed to see him dead.

Macon Fallon had never needed more than a deck of cards, a fast horse, and a ready gun; he was counting on those things now as he led an unsuspecting group of settlers to an abandoned mining town. But while Fallon prepared to pass the ghost town off as a gold mine in the making, a funny thing happened: a real-life community started to take shape in the town he’d christened Red Horse. So when a band of vicious outlaws and a kid who fancied himself a gunslinger threatened to rip Red Horse apart, Fallon found himself caught in one predicament he’d never gambled on. He had come to Red Horse to make a quick fortune, but now he might have to pick up a gun and risk his life for a place he never wanted to call home.…

The second installment of unabridged short stories from the New York Times bestselling collection, May There Be a Road.

In his extraordinary career Louis L’Amour captured the spirit of America as few writers ever have. A storyteller whose universal themes of bravery, pride, adventure, and self-reliance have echoed across generations, L’Amour set a standard that has yet to be matched. Fighter’s Fiasco brings together unforgettable stories never before available on audio.

These stories are vintage Louis L’Amour and a welcome addition to the libraries of his many avid fans, or a spectacular introduction to the work of America’s greatest storyteller, Fighter’s Fiasco exhibits the unbridled passion, the unsurpassed range, and the sheer genius of a true master working at the peak of his creative powers.

He left the West at the age of seventeen, leaving behind a rootless past and a bloody trail of violence. In the East he became one of the wealthiest financiers in America—and one of the most feared and hated.

Now, suffering from incurable cancer, he has come back to New Mexico to die alone. But when an all-out range war erupts, Flint chooses to help Nancy Kerrigan, a local rancher. A cold-eyed speculator is setting up the land swindle of a lifetime, and Buckdun, a notorious assassin, is there to back his play.

Flint alone can help Nancy save her ranch…with his cash, his connections—and his gun. He still has his legendary will to fight. All he needs is time, and that’s fast running out….

Exciting Western Adventure From America’s Best-Loved Storyteller

Louis L’Amour takes you back to the rough and tumble days of the Old West as you’ve never heard it before. A place with few rules–where men and women are inclined to make their own. Complete with a full cast, stirring music, and dramatic sound effects, this exclusive production of Fork Your Own Broncs sweeps listeners back to a time when men earned their living by the sweat of their brows, and depended on the land to do its part.

Fork Your Own Broncs

When Mac Marcy got it into his head to run his own cattle ranch, he spent five long years working for Ben Tanner at the Bar 7 to save up enough money to do just that. His dream finally realized, Mac stakes his claim on a deserted ranch in a nearby valley, and rides over to say hello to his new neighbors at the Flying K.

Thing is, Mac finds more than he bargained for in the owner’s pretty daughter, Sally Kenyon, who seems eager to help him get started with his own place. What Mac hadn’t counted on, though, was the jealous foreman at the Flying K, Vin Ricker, who had plans of his own where Sally and the Flying K were concerned.

And, as the hot summer wears on and the land becomes more and more parched, the hunt for fresh water becomes a burning issue between the two ranches. So hot, in fact, that what begins as a battle of wills between Vin and Mac quickly escalates from a gently smoldering anger to a roaring fire that threatens the future of both ranches.

Don’t miss the other exciting dramatizations of Louis L’Amour’s short stories!

CLASSIC WESTERN ADVENTURE FROM AMERICA’S FAVORITE STORYTELLER
This set, newly released on compact disc, contains four thrilling dramatizations of Louis
L’Amour’s short stories, featuring all the excitement of the Wild West–the fierce passion and determination of the men and women who dared to tame the rugged terrain and call it their home, the villains who threaten their dreams, and the cowboys who sought their own destinies across a uniquely American landscape. Each story is presented with rousing music, authentic sound effects, and a full cast, bringing to life the flavor of the Old West, and transporting the listener back to those uncertain days.

Four Card Draw
Allen Ring won the Red Rock Ranch in a poker game. But a man was shot in the back there a couple of years back. The murder is still unsolved, but someone seems convinced that Allen Ring has the missing answer. Ross Bilton was one of the men who found the body, and now he’s the town marshall. Ring finds himself in the middle of a mysterious conflict—and maybe headed for a showdown with the marshall.

Four Card Draw
Allen Ring won the Red Rock Ranch in a poker game. But a man was shot in the back there a couple of years back. The murder is still unsolved, but someone seems convinced that Allen Ring has the missing answer. Ross Bilton was one of the men who found the body, and now he’s the town marshall. Ring finds himself in the middle of a mysterious conflict—and maybe headed for a showdown with the marshall.

Get Out of Town
Ever since his father died, fourteen-year-old Tom Fairchild has helped his mother keep the ranch going. Soon it would be time to gather the cattle to market, and Tom was sent to ride into town to hire a hand. When he chose a stranger named Riley, the townspeople, the former hands, and the local law didn’t approve. Worse yet, the sheriff said Riley was a former convict. But Tom didn’t care. It was the first real decision Tom ever made on his own. Now he must face a threat closer to home, a danger he never expected. Tom Fairchild isn’t about to back down—but he’s in more trouble than he can handle by himself.

One for the Pot
The life of a mail-order bride was no breeze. It seemed to Laurie Bonnet she couldn’t do even the simplest thing right. She couldn’t make a cup of coffee fit for a dog, so how was she going to help her man in a war over his land? When things get too tough, Lauire decides to flee back home. On the trail she gets lost and meets up with a mysterious old man who teaches her a few things about love and courage. And she’ll need plenty of both when she returns to stand by her husband. Because now the Miller clan has hired themsleves a gunman to run Steve Bonnet off his land – or put him under the ground.

Classic tales that capture the heroic and indomitable spirit of our great land

The twelve stories in this collection run the spectrum of human emotions as they transport us from the fading majesty of the Old West to a small-town football field to the lonely canyons of one man’s mind. These classic tales of adventure, mystery, mysticism, and suspense epitomize the uniquely American yearning for connection and roots, justice and love, as only L’Amour can. Here is a diverse group of heroes and traitors, outlaws and lawmen—the innocent, the guilty, and those who operate in the shadowy territory outside the reach of justice.

The wastelands of Death Valley form the backdrop for the tale of a desperate man who leads his pursuers into a desert trap—where heat and thirst are his only weapons. A rodeo rider framed for a crime he didn’t commit takes a wild ride on a legendary bronco that may help him catch the real killers. An American pilot flies Russian and British agents into the labyrinthine forests of Asiatic Russia—only to discover that one of them is a traitor. A hit man discovers the fatal limits of friendship; and a quest for revenge becomes a frantic race to find a cache of gold hidden in the drifting sands of the Southwest. And in a powerful and moving parable, an Indian boy must lead his family across a drought-ravaged land with nothing to guide him but his faith.

The gripping title story counts down the final hours of a wounded man struggling to fend off his enemies and certain death. Before time runs out, he must finish the most important task of his life: a letter to his unborn son that will vindicate the family name. Filled with a special brand of passion and drama, From the Listening Hills is an exemplary collection that showcases the enduring talents of one of America’s most beloved authors.

A desperate stand. . .

Trouble was following Flagan Sackett with a vengeance. Captured and tortured by a band of Apaches, he had escaped into the rugged San Juan country, where he would try to stay alive until his brother Galloway could find him.

But the brothers were about to find worse trouble ahead. Their plan to establish a ranch angered the Dunn clan, who had decided that the vast range would be theirs alone. Now Galloway and Flagan would face an enemy who killed for sport — but as long as other Sacketts lived, they would not fight alone. . .

Get Out of Town
Ever since his father died, fourteen-year-old Tom Fairchild has helped his mother keep the ranch going. Soon it would be time to gather the cattle to market, and Tom was sent to ride into town to hire a hand. When he chose a stranger named Riley, the townspeople, the former hands, and the local law didn’t approve. Worse yet, the sheriff said Riley was a former convict. But Tom didn’t care. It was the first real decision Tom ever made on his own. Now he must face a threat closer to home, a danger he never expected. Tom Fairchild isn’t about to back down—but he’s in more trouble than he can handle by himself.

Grub Line Rider

Most folks would call Kim Sartain an easygoing, peace-loving man. But the few who crossed the young drifter knew there was nothing he liked better than a good fight. When cattleman Jim Targ challenges Sartain’s right to ride across an unclaimed stretch of meadow, Sartain decides he’ll do better than ride through: He’ll put down stakes there and homestead the land. So there’s more at risk than land and pride when Targ hires a gunman to teach Sartain a permanent–and deadly–lesson.

Clay Bell spent the last six years fighting Indians, rustlers, and the wilderness itself to make the B-Bar ranch the prize of the Deep Creek Range. But Jud Devitt, a ruthless speculator from the East, now threatens everything Clay has worked for. Devitt, holding a contract with the Mexican Central to deliver railroad ties, wants to harvest timber off the land where Clay grazes his cattle. Backing Devitt are shady politicians, a dishonest banker, and fifty of the toughest lumberjacks in the county. But as Colleen Riley, Devitt’s fiancée, realizes the brutal game he’s playing, her disapproval of his actions, and Clay Bell’s obvious integrity and charm, pull her toward a destiny that will tip the scales in their bloody battle over timber and cattle.

Barnabus Pike is no gunfighter and not much of a street fighter. Eddie Holt is a black boxer in a white man’s world. They’ve both taken their share of hard knocks. Now they’re looking to survive a brutal winter in a remote Montana line shack, collect their pay, and settle down for good. Then they cross paths with a hardworking Irish immigrant and his beautiful, spirited sister, who’ve been burned off their land. It’s a fight Pike and Holt don’t want, don’t need, and don’t dare turn their backs on—especially when one of the perpetrators might be one of Pike’s old friends. Hunted like animals across the frozen countryside, Pike and Holt will risk everything—including their reputations, their dreams—and their lives.

Considine and Pete Runyon had once been friends, back in the days when both were cowhands. But when Runyon married the woman Considine loved, the two parted ways. Runyon settled down and became a sheriff. Considine took up robbing banks. Now Considine is planning a raid on the bank at Obaro, a plan that will pit him against Runyon . . . and lead to riches or suicide. The one thing he never counted on was meeting a strong, beautiful woman and her stubborn father, hell-bent on traveling alone through Apache territory to a new life. Suddenly Considine must choose between revenge and redemption—and either choice could be the last one he makes.

His Brother’s Debt

Cattle rancher Ben Kerr wants Jim and Jack Casady’s prime farmland real bad. He’s offered them good money, but they won’t sell. When the Casady brothers find Kerr’s cattle grazing on their land, surrounded by broken fences, anger rises up like bile in Jack Casady’s gut and tempers flare.

As Jack rushes up from behind to warn Jim of an impending ambush by Kerr and his cronies, he’s mistakenly shot by his own brother. Jim, devastated by his devastated by his mistake, heads for the hills to do some soul-searching, haunted by the vision of the brother he’d gunned down.

But Jim finds something even better than solitude to chase away his grief on his journey. He discovers that sometimes it takes more courage to walk away from a fight than to draw, and that maybe, just maybe, the best payback he could give his brother is to start living his own life again.

Home in the Valley

Steve Mehan had done the impossible: driven a herd of cattle from the Nevada range to California in the dead of winter! To the north the passes were blocked with snow, to the south lay miles of trackless and nearly waterless desert. But now the cattle the five ranchers had entrusted to him were sage. And he was back in time to pay off Jake Hitson, the moneylending rancher who’d stop at nothing to get their land.

But Mehan had little time to rest before Hitson began to gloat. The bank in town had failed–the money was gone. Steve didn’t hesitate. He had no choice. Now he’d ride hell-for-leather from Sacramento to Portland-six hundred and forty-five miles-with only one hop in a million. He had to beat the steamer to the Portland bank branch and get the ranchers’ money before the bank got the news.

He was etched by the desert’s howling winds, a big, broad-shouldered man who knew the ways of the Apache and the ways of staying alive. She was a woman alone raising a young son on a remote Arizona ranch. And between Hondo Lane and Angie Lowe was the warrior Vittoro, whose people were preparing to rise against the white men. Now the pioneer woman, the gunman, and the Apache warrior are caught in a drama of love, war, and honor.

Horse Heaven

When Jim Locklin pays his brother George a visit, he finds George missing, his horse ranch taken over by his brother’s estranged wife, and a shifty gambler named Chance Varrow who seems to have become a permanent visitor.

As Jim’s suspictions build, they center on one person – Varrow, whose relationship with George’s wife, Amie, is a little too close for comfort. Taking matters into his own hands, Jim vows to find out the truth, no matter what the cost. In the end, it will all come down to just two men – and only one will walk away.

They came by river and by wagon train, braving the endless distances of the Great Plains and the icy passes of the Sierra Nevada. They were men like Linus Rawlings, a restless survivor of Indian country who’d headed east to see the ocean but left his heart—and his home—in the West. They were women like Lilith Prescott, a smart, spirited beauty who fled her family and fell for a gambling man in the midst of a frontier gold boom. These pioneering men and women sowed the seeds of a nation with their courage—and with their blood. Here is the story of how their paths would meet amid the epic struggle against fierce enemies and nature’s cruelty, to win for all time the rich and untamed West.

In Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L’Amour’s great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land.

Jubal Sackett’s urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands. He seeks a Natchez exploration party and its leader, Itchakomi. It is she who will rule her people when their aging chief dies, but first she must vanquish her rival, the arrogant warrior Kapata. Sackett’s quest will bring him danger from an implacable enemy . . . and show him a life—and a woman—worth dying for.

Keep Travelin’ Rider
After an absence of several years, Tack Gentry heads home to his Uncle John’s G-Bar Ranch. But when he arrives, the entire town has changed. What’s more, strangers have taken over the G-Bar. Strangers who claim that Tack’s uncle died in a gunfight. But Tack knows better. He knows his uncle was a strict Quaker–a man who never even owned a gun. The new sheriff in town wants Tack to get out of town, pronto–but Gentry vows to stay put and fight for the land he believes is his.

Tack Gentry has been away for a year when he returns to the familiar buildings of his uncle John Gentry’s G Bar. To his amazement, the ranch has a new owner, who is unimpressed when Tack explains that his uncle was a Quaker, didn’t believe in violence, and never carried a gun. His advice to Tack is to make tracks. But Tack has other plans.

Joe Harbin hadn’t killed a man for a fortune in gold just to sit in prison and let Rodelo collect it.  But when he and his men break out and head for the stash, they end up with a pair of unwelcome partners: Rodelo and a beautiful woman with a hidden past.  To get fifty thousand dollars in gold across fifty miles of desert, the desperate band quickly learns how much they need each other-—and how deep their greed and suspicion can run.  At the end of the journey lie the waters of Baja and a new life in Mexico, but first they have to survive the savage heat, bounty-hunting Yaqui Indians, and the shifting, treacherous nature of both the desert sands and their own conflicting loyalties.

Dan Killoe—over six feet of tough, raw, lightning fast man.  He had a trail heard and a mass of settlers to get across unknown territory to a new land.  Then he gave shelter to a stranger being hunted by Felipe Soto, scar-faced leader of the renegade Comancheros.  This time Killoe was borrowing more trouble than he wanted to handle.

Kate Lundy, owner of the Tumbling B, and Conn Dury, her foreman, told Tom the rules: men from the cattle drives are forbidden on the north side of town. People appreciated the money the cowboys spent but thought them too coarse to be near their homes. Enticed to come calling by Linda McDonald, daughter of one of the leading citizens, Tom Lundy broke the law and crossed the line. Later that night, he was dead.

Outraged by her brother’s murder, Kate vows to destroy the entire town. But when Aaron McDonald sends east for an army of hired guns, Conn Dury and the men of the Tumbling B soon wonder if the price of Kate’s revenge is too high.

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.

“For sheer adventure L’Amour is in top form.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
Here is the kind of authentically detailed epic novel that has become Louis L’Amour’s hallmark. It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness. Only one route lies open to Mack: the path of his ancestors, overland to the Bering Strait and across the sea to America. But in pursuit is a legendary tracker, the Yakut native Alekhin, who knows every square foot of the icy frontier—and who knows that to trap his quarry he must think like a Sioux.

It was the only water for miles in a vast, sun-blasted desert where water meant survival. So Logan Cates naturally headed for Papago Wells. But he wasn’t the only one. Fleeing the fierce Churupati and his Apache warriors, other travelers had come there too. And when the Apaches found them, they began a siege as relentless and unforgiving as the barren land…and just as inescapable.

The last thing Cates wanted was to be responsible for the lives of thirteen desperate strangers and a shipment of gold. But he knew that if they were to survive, he was their last chance. He also knew that some in the party were willing to die—or kill—to get their hands on the money. If he couldn’t get them to work together, it wouldn’t be the desert or even the Apaches that would do them in—it would be the greed of the very people he was trying to save.

No one tells tales of the frontier better than Louis L’Amour, who portrays the human side of westward expansion–the good and the bad–before the days of law and order. Collected here are seven stories penned by America’s favorite Western author.

The Black Rock Coffin Makers

Two men in the isolated town of Tucker want the XY ranch: Jim Walker and the ruthless Wing Cary–and one of them wants it badly enough to kill for it. It is a tale of suspense and danger, with chases, posses, shootouts, and double-crosses–all for possession of the XY ranch.

Grub Line Rider

Kim Sartain is an easygoing, peace-loving drifter. But when cattleman Jim Targ challenges Sartain’s right to ride across an unclaimed stretch of meadow, Sartain retaliates by deciding to homestead there. Soon, more is at risk than land and pride, when Targ decides to teach Sartain a permanent–and deadly–lesson.

Desert Death Song

Nat Bodine had a choice: to die by hanging or take his chances in the desert. But when a good woman believes in a man, he finds the will to survive.

One Last Gun Notch

Morgan Clyde was driven off his small ranch by a hired gunman. He worked odd jobs but soon found himself being hired to use his gun. Now, he’s working for a land hog in Red Basin who wants him to drive off a young homesteader and his wife. The scenario is too familiar, and Clyde finds that he must make a decision.

Ride, You Tonto Raiders

Matt Sabre is a young gunfighter who shoots a man who forced him to draw. To his surprise, the man on his deathbed gives him $5,000 and begs him to take the money to his wife, who is alone defending the family ranch. Guilt, regret, and wanting to do the right thing lead Matt Sabre to make that ride.

War Party

A boy on the brink of manhood, a resourceful frontier woman who has beauty as well as fortitude, and a strong male character come together in this powerful, romantic, and strangely compelling vision of the American West.

Law of the Desert Born

Shad Marone is a lone gunman on the run from the law. He shot a man in a fair fight; but the sheriff is his bitter enemy, and Shad knows he’ll never get a fair trial. He is being tracked by a man named Lopez, and after three days in the desert it looks like they’ll both die of thirst–unless, of course, some miracle happens.

A PRIZED COLLECTION OF AMERICAN FICTION—FROM AMERICA’S FAVORITE STORYTELLER
 
This first-rate collection of short stories by the incomparable Louis L’Amour showcases the legendary writer at his very best: spinning a fascinating and wholly authentic set of unforgettable tales. In these extraordinary stories, we meet a man who is forced to defend himself by taking another’s life—and must pay for his actions in a most punishing manner; a young thrill-seeker who finally finds a place he can call home, and vows to stay there—regardless of the man who tries to stand in his way; and a drifter who honors a deathbed promise to a stranger by embarking on an unlikely mission of mercy.
 
Complete with revealing author’s notes, the stories in Law of the Desert Born are historically precise, and filled with L’Amour’s trademark humor and adventure. They are nothing less than modern classics of the American West, told by one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

Law of the Desert Born
These stories represent Louis L’Amour at his best–stirring adventure tales of the ageless Old West, as tough and gritty as the men who tames it. Each story is personally selected, with an introduction and special historical notes, by the author.

Meet men like Shad Marone, the gunfighter who killed in self-defense, but who is forced to run because he killed the wrong man–the sheriff’s brother; Matt Sabre, as tough as the Texas trail he rides, on a mission of mercy to the wife of the man he gunned down; and Kim Sartain, a reckless young drifter who refuses to back down from a showdown with a vicious outlaw killer. Every story in this collection bear’s Louis L’Amour’s distinctive brand of unbridled action and unembellished authenticity–taking us into the white-hot deserts, stone-cold canyons, and rough-and-tumble towns of the world only he knows so well.

That Triggernometry Tenderfoot
An action-packed story from the popular western anthology, Long Ride Home.

Horse Heaven
When Jim Locklin pays his brother George a visit, he finds George missing, his horse ranch taken over by his brother’s estranged wife, and a shifty gambler named Chance Varrow who seems to have become a permanent visitor.

As Jim’s suspictions build, they center on one person – Varrow, whose relationship with George’s wife, Amie, is a little too close for comfort. Taking matters into his own hands, Jim vows to find out the truth, no matter what the cost. In the end, it will all come down to just two men – and only one will walk away.

Johnny Buck is a young cowboy, working for the Bar W. In the process of roping an old stob-horned steer, Buck is thrown from his horse–and into a hidden cleft where he encounters the mystery of a murdered man and a bag of ore that just might be gold. The taciturn owner of the Bar W discounts Buck’s story of the “gold,” but Buck soon finds that some of the shadier ranch hands are gunning for him. With a widow’s daughter, a lost mine, and a missing prospector in the balance, Buck has no choice but to solve the mystery–or die trying.

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.

In this exciting short story, Louis L’Amour, the legendary voice of the American West, celebrates the unique breed of men who worked the great cattle ranches. In this classic story, hard riding Danny Lonigan faces a group of rustlers without fear–or mercy.

This collection, presented in a wood gift box, gathers seven popular Louis L’Amour stories, performed by a star-studded cast. Willie Nelson reads six and one is fully dramatized by Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and the late Waylon Jennings, who together were known as The Highwaymen.
The collection includes:Riding for the Brand, The Black Rock Coffin Makers, Dutchman’s Flat, The Nester and the Piute, Mistakes Can Kill You, Trail to Pie Town, and Big Medicine.

The first of its kind, a unique volume of twenty-one unpublished gems from one of the twentieth century’s most popular and prolific writers
 
Using his father’s handwritten notes, journal entries, and correspondences, Beau L’Amour uncovers how and why many never-before-seen manuscripts were written—and speculates about the ways they might have ended.

These selections celebrate L’Amour’s vision and virtuosity, including the first seven chapters of a powerful novel about the Trail of Tears, a chilling Western horror story, and a tale of the American Revolution featuring a character related to L’Amour’s well-known Sackett family. At the other end of the spectrum are classic adventures, such as The Golden Tapestry, set in 1960s Istanbul, as well as several uniquely different attempts at what would have been the most profoundly intimate of all of L’Amour’s novels, a saga of reincarnation that stretches from a time before time, to the period of Alexander the Great, and on to Warlord-Era China.

This audiobook reveals the L’Amour you have never known, his personal struggles as a writer, and the contest between mortality and a literary legacy too big for one life to contain.

“Lost treasures indeed . . . a behind-the scenes look at the unpublished work and unrealized aspirations of an iconic writer of Westerns.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“A valuable addition to [L’Amour’s] literary legacy.”—Booklist

Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives.
 
In Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volumes 1, Beau L’Amour takes the reader on a guided tour through many of the finished and unfinished short stories, novels, and treatments that his father was never able to publish during his lifetime. L’Amour’s never-before-seen first novel, No Traveller Returns, faithfully completed for this program, is a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas. These exciting publications will be followed by Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 2.
 
Additionally, many beloved classics will be rereleased with an exclusive Lost Treasures postscript featuring previously unpublished material, including outlines, plot notes, and alternate drafts. These postscripts tell the story behind the stories that millions of readers have come to know and cherish.

More unpublished works from the archives of Louis L’Amour: complete short stories, partial novels, treatments, and notes that will transport readers from the Western frontier to India, China, and even the future.

Exploring the creative process of an American original, the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures series will uncover the hidden history behind the author’s best known novels . . . and his most mysterious and ambitious unfinished works.

In this second volume, Beau L’Amour examines how his father made the transition from struggling pulp writer to successful novelist and uses his father’s notes, journal entries, and correspondence to continue the process of seeking out how and why many of these never-before-seen manuscripts were written as well as speculating about the ways they might have ended.

These selections include the beginnings of a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale, a proposal for a nonfiction project based on the life of Renaissance-era traveler Ibn Batuta, and two chapters of a historical novel set in India about the origin of L’Amour’s well-known Talon family.

At the other end of the spectrum are classic adventures, such as “In the Measure of Time,” a chance encounter set on the high seas, and a science fiction film treatment set in Mexico, as well as seventeen chapters of a novel that reappears throughout Louis’s journals and letters and speaks to his fascination with post-revolutionary 1950s China, leading him so far as to correspond with the Dalai Lama.

This audiobook further maps the journey L’Amour embarked upon to become one of our greatest storytellers and the diverse realms to which his imagination traveled, making him a true American pioneer.

In McQueen of the Tumbling K, Ward McQueen is foreman for Ruth Kermitt, owner of the Tumbling K Ranch. He finds traces of a man, apparently wounded, who has sought shelter in the hinterlands of the Tumbling K, but he is unable to locate him. When McQueen rides into town, he is shot down by gunmen and left for dead. But they made a critical mistake because McQueen is not dead–and he’s looking to get even.

In Big Medicine, old Billy Dunbar has discovered the best gold-bearing gravel he had found in a year, but now he is down flat on his face in a dry wash, hiding because a small band of Apaches has shown up. It will be just too bad for him if they catch sight of his burros or notice any of the prospect holes. He’s going to have to figure out a pretty good strategy to get out of this one alive.

In Dutchman’s Flat, it all seemed a simple matter to the six men in the posse. A squatter named Lock gunned down Johnny Webb in the Bon Ton, shooting him in the back. Now, once they caught him, there wasn’t going to be any trial. However, as the posse heads out into the desert, it becomes only too clear that Lock knows the desert better than they do, and he knows how to pick them off one by one.

Here are two exciting adventures from the pen of Louis L’Amour.

“Trap of Gold”

Wetherton has been three months out of Horsehead before he finds his first color. The gold is located at the head of a fan laying in a gigantic crack in a granite upthrust that resembles a fantastic ruin. This crumbling granite is slashed with a vein of quartz that is literally laced with gold! The problem is that the granite upthrust is unstable, and taking out the quartz might bring the whole thing tumbling down.

“Trail to Pie Town”

Dusty Barron rides his steel-dust stallion at full gallop out of town. Behind him, a man lies bleeding on the floor of a saloon. Dan Hickman had called him yellow and gone for a gun, but Dan was a mite slow. Maybe if Emmett Fisk and Gus Mattis hadn’t appeared just as he was making a break from the saloon, he could have explained himself. But they reached for their guns when they saw him, and Dusty had hit the desert road. The dead man had relatives in the area, and now it looked like he was going to be facing a clan war.

These two tales set in the wild desert pit the forces of fierce nature against the sturdy character of the Western man.

“Law of the Desert”

Shad Marone is a lone gunman on the run from the law. He shot a man in a fair fight, but the man was the sheriff’s brother, and Shad knows he’ll never get a fair trial. He is being tracked by a man named Lopez, and after three days in the desert it looks like they’ll both die of thirst—unless, of course, a miracle should happen.

“Desert Death Song”

Nat Bodine had a choice: to die by hanging or take his chances in the desert. But when a good woman believes in a man, he finds the will to survive.

No one tells tales of the frontier better than Louis L’Amour, who portrays the human side of westward expansion—the good and the bad—before the days of law and order. Here is one of the stories penned by America’s favorite Western author with its text restored to the state of its initial publication in the magazine West in 1950.

It starts out innocently enough when Jim Gary comes upon the trail camp of three men pushing a herd of cattle. One of the men has a shotgun, something usually not carried by men on a trail drive, but Jim asks for coffee anyway. Red Slagle, the ramrod of the outfit, is friendly enough—and even offers Jim a job riding herd. Jim can use the money, and the herd is moving the same direction as Jim, who is on his way to work for Mart Ray, an old saddle mate now foreman for the Double A brand. It’s the same brand as that on this herd. In fact, the men even claim they are supposed to meet up with Mart Ray at the end of the drive. It’s lucky for Jim that he happened along—or is it? Jim has his doubts and suspects the herd is stolen.

Louis L’Amour said that the West was no place for the frightened or the mean. It was a “big country needing big men and women to live in it.” This volume presents nine of L’Amour’s ever-popular short stories–history that lives forever.

“Riding for the Brand”After a narrow escape, Jed Asbury comes across a derelict covered wagon, the people and their horses killed. Now outfitted in new clothes and guns, he decides to finish what the former owners had set out to do.

“Four Card Draw”Allen Ring drew four cards in a poker game with Ben Taylor and won a small ranch. It’s all Allen had ever hoped to have–but Marshall Bilton is determined to make things difficult.

“His Brother’s Debt”Rock Casady is considered a coward because he won’t go into town. But that was before Sue Landon asked Rock to accompany her to make some needed purchases–and Casady can’t say no to a lady.

“A Strong Land Growing”Marshal Fitz Moore of Sentinel hears that outlaws plan to hit his town. Their method is to kill the lawman first, then loot the town. Nevertheless, Moore intends to make his stand.

“The Turkeyfeather Riders”Jim Sandifer, foreman for the B Bar ranch, plans to come clean about a raid he stopped on the Katrischen spread–even though it will bring an end to his life at the ranch and ruin his only chance with the girl he loves.

“Lit a Shuck for Texas”The Sandy Kid is nineteen and new to this range. He gets curious when he tells his boss, Wald, of a rich-veined chunk of gold ore on Wald’s land but gets only anger in response.

“The Nester and the Paiute”The Paiute is the local bad man. But as bad as his rustling and killing has been, Sheriff Todd had never caught him with real evidence–but that was before the Nester rode in …

“Barney Takes a Hand”The H&C Cattle Company has an eviction notice for Tess Bayeux. Tess has been waiting for help from Rex Tilden, but he hasn’t responded. She supposes that this new fellow, Barney, will be no help at all, but in that she is wrong.

“Man Riding West”Jim Gary, the man riding west, comes upon three men pushing cattle. Red Slagle seems friendly enough and even offers Jim a job riding herd. Jim can use the money, and the herd is moving the same direction he is, which is good luck for him–unless the herd is stolen.

Jim Gary had always tried to avoid trouble. But after he is forced to kill a Mexican gunman in a cantina showdown, trouble seems to seek him out. A shoot-out with the gunman’s vengeful outlaw buddies sends Jim on the run, with an unwanted reputation as a dangerous gunslinger. And when he hires on as a cowhand for a friend, Jim risks being strung up as a rustler and murderer–unless he can use his wits as quickly as his guns.

Man Riding West

Jim Gary had always tried to avoid trouble, but after he is forced to kill a Mexican gunman in a cantina showdown, trouble seems to seek him out. A shoot-out with the gunman’s vengeful outlaw buddies sends Jim on the run with an unwanted reputation as a dangerous gunslinger. And when he hires on as a cowhand, Jim risks being strung up as a rustler and murderer—unless he can use his wits as quickly as his guns.

Grub Line Rider

Most folks would call Kim Sartain an easygoing, peace-loving man, but the few who crossed the young drifter know there is nothing he likes better than a good fight. When cattleman Jim Targ challenges Sartain’s right to ride across an unclaimed stretch of meadow, Sartain decides he’ll do better than ride through: He’ll put down stakes there and homestead the land. There’s more at risk than land and pride when Targ hires a gunman to teach Sartain a permanent—and deadly—lesson.

Down the Pogonop Trail

Jeff Kurland didn’t have a gun; he didn’t have a chance. The rancher knew that even as he scanned the cabin for a weapon, any weapon. He was trapped with a killer who had a pistol in his hand and a bounty on his head, and outside the pogonip swirled and fell. Death would creep into the cabin with the bone-chilling cold or slice through him with the speed of a bullet. Either way, time was running out . . . for both of them.

Tap Duvarney lost his innocence in the War Between the States and then put his skills to the test as a soldier in the frontier army. Now, leaving behind a devoted fiancée, he is trying to make his fortune on the Texas coast, working a ranch as the partner of his old friend Tom Kittery—and finding himself in the middle of a feud between Kittery and the neighboring Munson family. Around Matagorda Island, most people are either backing the Munsons or remaining silent. But the danger from outside Kittery’s camp is nothing compared to the threat within, as Tap begins to suspect that Kittery’s woman, a Texas-born beauty who misses the glitz and glamour of city life, isn’t everything she appears to be. Tap is quickly discovering that he must go to war again. But will it be with the Munsons—or with his closest friend?

Spirited American stories gathered together for the first time

From the coasts of Brazil to the borders of Tibet to the very heartland of America, May There Be a Road gathers ten previously uncollected stories that capture the magnificent scope and sense of epic adventure that epitomize Louis L’Amour classic fiction.

In these vivid settings L’Amour takes us into the pivotal moments when lives are altered forever, when men and women face a deadly enemy, find a kindred spirit, or confront their own mortality.

Among the unforgettable characters we meet here are a hard-living, hard-drinking freighter captain whose penchant for flying may change the course of World War II . . .

A lonely frontiersman who unexpectedly finds himself the protector of two orphans . . .

A boxer who accepts a gambler’s payoff and then must fight to redeem himself . . .

A detective willing to believe an unproven story in order to discover a painful truth hidden in a small town. And in the title story L’Amour weaves the powerful tale of a young Tibetan khan who leads a band of horsemen on a daring escape across treacherous mountain terrain. At stake is the survival of a people and an ancient way of life.

Evoking the American spirit of bravery, pride, adventure, and self-reliance as few writers have, this extraordinary volume proves once again that L’Amour has set a standard yet to be matched.

This three-story collection includes:

McNelly Knows a Ranger
From the day Chick Bowdrie rode up to Noah Whipple’s ranch gravely wounded, Whipple had treated him with kindness—almost like a son. When Whipple is shot by a notorious gunfighter, Bowdrie swears vengeance. Joining McNelly’s Texas Rangers, he vows to hunt down the killer along with his gang. But Chick Bowdrie does not realize just how vicious they are . . . or how ruthless they can be.

A Job for a Ranger
There were bullet holes in the bank window and blood on the hitching rail. Five bandits and ten thousand dollars had ridden out of town and no one at the Rancher’s Rest saloon had seen anything but a distinctively colored horse belonging to a local. But Chick Bowdrie soon had hard evidence that he was dealing with savage killers. To clear the name of an innocent man, Bowdrie pursues the murderous gang of bank robbers and cattle rustlers.

Desert Death Song
Powder Basin—the rugged country at the edge of a dry, forbidding desert—holds more hiding places than most men could find. Nat Bodine knows most of them; holed up in the Basin hills by a posse of over a hundred men, he needs them more than ever before. Jim Morton knows that if anyone is going to escape this posse, it’s Bodine, just as he knows that Bodine is the kind of man who wouldn’t commit the crime of which he’s accused.

McQueen of the Tumbling K
Ranch foreman Ward McQueen recognizes trouble when he sees it-and trouble is what the Texan sees when he spies the tracks of a wounded man in the middle of the big Tumbling K spread. In town, he learns that a tinhorn gambler has just won the ranch next to the Tumbling K in a dirty card game–and is turning his oily gaze toward the K’s pretty owner, Miss Ruth Kermitt.

Sure as shooting, McQueen knows the shifty-eyed parlor snake has something to do with the tracks, but before he can prove it to Ruth Kermitt. McQueen finds himself ambushed, dry-gulched, and left in a shallow grave to die–

This collection includes:

McQueen of the Tumbling K
Ranch foreman Ward McQueen recognizes trouble when he sees it-and trouble is what the Texan sees when he spies the tracks of a wounded man in the middle of the big Tumbling K spread. In town, he learns that a tinhorn gambler has just won the ranch next to the Tumbling K in a dirty card game–and is turning his oily gaze toward the K’s pretty owner, Miss Ruth Kermitt.

Sure as shooting, McQueen knows the shifty-eyed parlor snake has something to do with the tracks, but before he can prove it to Ruth Kermitt. McQueen finds himself ambushed, dry-gulched, and left in a shallow grave to die–

West of the Tularosas
Pelona was a strange town, and Ward McQueen was a stranger to it. The stalwart foreman of the Tumbling K had come to the high country to take legal possession of the Firebox range. But the sight that greeted him when he arrived was an ugly one: the battle-stained and bullet-ridden body of its former owner. It was clear that the young Jimmy McCracken had gone out fighting, for his killers left behind a trail of blood. Now McQueen has followed that trail–straight to Pelona, a town so full of double-dealings and trickery that the truth can only be uncovered from behind the barrel of a gun–

The Sixth Shotgun
The gallows are going up in Canyon Gap and wild-spirited Leo Carver is going to swing. A known troublemaker without an alibi, Leo certainly had motives for holding up the stage and killing two men, yet he still proclaims his innocence. There’s a lot of folks who want to believe him, because although Leo Carver is a hard-living, free-spending maverick, he is the kind of man the West needs. But as an angry mob forms outside the jail demanding a hanging, a beautiful woman is asking questions–the kind that could uncover a smoking shotgun–and a twisted motive for murder.

The Cactus Kid is on his way to the spring dance to meet his best girl, Bess O’Neal. As the Kid ambles through the lonely mountain trail toward town, two men emerge from the darkness—Miguel and Lobo Fernandez, of the menacing Fernandez brothers. And what they want from the Cactus Kid is vengeance.

Merrano of the Dry Country

When Miguel Merrano first came to Mirror Valley, the land was green and lush . . . and off limits to Mexicans. Ranchers such as Tom Drake and Joe Stangle tried to drive Merrano out, to fence him out; and whe he warned them that greed and overgrazing would ruin their land, they refused to listen.

Now Merrano’s predictions have come true. Mirror Valley is so dry it’s about to blow away. The cattle are hollow-ribbed and dying. And the ranchers are broke . . . flat broke. Only Merrano’s ranch is still thriving. As the ranchers watch him pay for goods in gold and sell his cattle at a mighty profit, their hatred grows and festers . . . until they draw their guns in a desperate act that will pit daughter against father, friend against friend – an act that could tear the valley apart forever . . .

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.

This priceless collection of once lost stories brings to life a time of desperate violence and true courage in a wide-open country of fortune seekers and dreamers, lawbreakers and pioneers.

A newly sworn-in marshal must outwit a mysterious killer who’s fleecing his neighbors while secretly cutting their throats. . . .

A young drifter, wounded in a gunfight, finds a chance to change his ways—but he must be willing to pay with his life. . . .

A fiercely independent woman and a mysterious stranger take a desperate stand against those out to drive her from her home. . . .

And in the haunting short novel Monument Rock, a shadowy horseman delivers a terrifying message to an innocent young woman—the shocking truth about the two men closest to her heart. History, humor, action, and adventure fill the pages of these masterpieces, told by one of the foremost storytellers of our time.

The Road to Casas Piedras
In the midst of a lively country dance, gunshots ring out at the stagecoach station and Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie finds the station’s master sprawled in a pool of his own blood. Twelve thousand dollars are missing. And an innocent man has been murdered. And it’s up to Chick to bring the killer to justice. With the unerring instincts that make him one of the best trackers in the Texas Rangers, Chick locates the killer’s camp–and his lifeless body, courtesy of a double-crossing accomplice. But the bloodshed won’t end unless Chick can stop the mastermind behind the robbery, an unlikely schemer whose greed makes good men bad–and careless men dead.

More Brains Than Bullets
Banker Tom Lindsay made a bad decision when he decided to do business with Ross Yerby. Yerby convinced Tom to print a few extra greenbacks to help him trade some cattle in exchange for half the profit. What Tom hadn’t figured into the equation was Ross losing the money, and returning — desperate — for more. An argument between the two men goes bad, Lindsay is killed, and Yerby flees with a bundle of Lindsay’s cash in tow.

With no witnesses to the robbery turned murder, the first accusing finger is pointed at Lindsay’s assistant Bill Culver, who’s conveniently absent when Lindsay’s body is discovered. But Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie, who’s just arrived in town on a different matter, decides to take a detour and try to find Lindsay’s killer. What he finds is a second victim — but this one’s still alive.

West of Dodge
Where the real frontier begins…

A young cowpuncher stakes a claim that can only be sealed with fists and a .44 Colt…. A gunfighter, tired of violence, finds himself pushed down a trail of bloody revenge…. From purple sage to gambler’s gold, from a señorita’s tempting smile to a splash of blood in the dust, here are stories with a distinctive L’Amour twist.

A quiet farmer defends his honor in a moment of panic and luck…only to find true courage on the run from the dead man’s brothers. A young drifter defends a lady’s honor…and finds himself the quarry of a hanging posse. An aging marshal with a reputation as a crack shot faces a stranger who knows his secret. With relentless suspense and unforgettable drama, Louis L’Amour once again paints a vivid portrait of our western heritage that will live forever.

In Mustang Man, Louis L’Amour takes Nolan Sackett on a dangerous journey into family betrayal, greed, and murder.

When Nolan Sackett met Penelope Hume in a cantina at Borregos Plaza, the girl immediately captured his attention. That she was heir to a lost cache of gold didn’t make her any less desirable. But Penelope isn’t the only one after her grandfather’s treasure; Sylvie, Ralph, and Andrew Karnes, distant relatives with no legal claim to the gold, are obsessed with claiming the Hume fortune for themselves. Their all-consuming sense of entitlement recklessly drives them to ambush and murder. Even if Sackett and Penelope are fortunate enough to escape this deadly trio and find the canyon where the gold is hidden, Indian legend has it that nothing will live there—no birds or insects. They say it is filled with the bones of men.

Passion drives Lou Morgan to the town of Battle Basin–passion and the promise of $5000. For in this dusty town lives the wildly irresistible Nana Maduro, the woman Morgan loved enough to kill for, the woman who walked away from him without a word. Now, butter but still caught in her spell, Morgan hires on with one of Nana’s suitors to eliminate that man’s rival. But when Morgan finds himself the target of two brutal killers, he can’t help but wonder what Nana’s admirers are really after…or if he’ll live to find out.

Louis L’Amour’s long-lost first novel, faithfully completed by his son, takes readers on a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas.
 
Fate is a ship.
 
As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying eighty thousand barrels of highly explosive naphtha. The cargo alone makes the journey perilous, with the entire crew aware that one careless moment could lead to disaster.
 
But yet another sort of peril haunts the Lichenfield. Even beyond their day-to-day existence, the lives of the crew are mysteriously intertwined. Though each has his own history, dreams and jealousies, longing and rage, all are connected by a deadly web of chance and circumstance.
 
Some are desperately fleeing the past; others chase an unknown destiny. A few are driven by the desire for adventure, while their shipmates cling to the Lichenfield as their only true home. In their hearts, these men, as well as the women and children they have left behind, carry the seeds of salvation or destruction. And all of them—kind or cruel, strong or broken—are bound to the fate of the vessel that carries them toward an ever-darkening horizon.
 
Inspired by Louis L’Amour’s own experiences as a merchant seaman, No Traveller Returns is a revelatory work by a world-renowned author—and a brilliant illustration of a writer discovering his literary voice.

With the Preface and Afterward read by Beau L’Amour

Advance praise for No Traveller Returns

“A highly entertaining nautical adventure . . . Beau L’Amour has done his father’s fans a service by showcasing the future bestselling author’s already developed storytelling and mature insights into human nature.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Although L’Amour’s name will be forever linked with the American West, fans should welcome the opportunity to read some of his early work. . . . The insight into each character is typical of everything L’Amour ever wrote.”—Booklist

When Tom Chantry comes west to buy cattle, he quickly runs into trouble. During a drunken scuffle in a bar, Dutch Akin challenges Chantry to a gunfight. Leaving town rather than face Akin, Chantry is quickly branded a coward.

Later, when hiring men to take his herd to the railroad, Chantry faces a dilemma: No one wants to make the long, dangerous ride with a leader of questionable courage. So when French Williams, a shrewd and ruthless cattleman, makes Chantry an offer, Tom reluctantly accepts his unusual terms: Tom must remain with the drive from start to finish. If he fails to do so, the entire herd will belong to French.

Tom quickly learns that life is not going to be made easy for him. The first man French hires is Dutch Akin.

For the first time ever in large print comes this brand new collection from Louis L’Amour, the legendary New York Times bestselling master of the short story.

These unique tales from Louis L’Amour, one of America’s greatest treasures, were originally published in magazines of his time. Revered throughout the world for his novels of the frontier experience, L’Amour’s critical and popular reputation has soared to new heights as the power and excitement of his short fiction has been revealed in collections like Monument Rock and Beyond the Great Snow Mountains.

Here in Off the Mangrove Coast are fast-moving, historically detailed stories of the travails of extraordinary men and women struggling to break free, to capture fortune and fame, or find love. Here are the characters and the great tales that have made Louis L’Amour one of the world’s most popular authors. Here are the works of a master craftsman which will live forever in the reader’s imaginations.

The life of a mail-order bride was no breeze. It seemed to Laurie Bonnet she couldn’t do even the simplest thing right. She couldn’t make a cup of coffee fit for a dog, so how was she going to help her man in a war over his land? When things get too tough, Lauire decides to flee back home. On the trail she gets lost and meets up with a mysterious old man who teaches her a few things about love and courage. And she’ll need plenty of both when she returns to stand by her husband. Because now the Miller clan has hired themsleves a gunman to run Steve Bonnet off his land – or put him under the ground.

Few travelers happen by Lee’s Canyon. But when Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie suddenly appears at Moby Fosdick’s door looking for Shad Tucker, slowly brewing trouble begins boiling over fast. Before the sun sets, bullets are flying. And by the time it rises again, Bowdrie’s badly outnumbered, sixteen-year-old Lily Fosdick is trapped in a cave with a cold-hearted killer, and it’s high time for nineteen-year-old Jerry Fosdick to decide which side of the law he’s one.

As part of the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures series, this edition contains exclusive bonus materials!
 
The abandoned cabin seemed like a good place to settle down . . . except for the dead man in the front yard. But Doby Kernohan and his father had traveled a long way seeking a new start, and they were in no position to be choosy. Unfortunately, the mysterious man’s violent end was an omen of darker events to come, for a cycle of violence that had begun long ago was about to reach an explosive conclusion. Caught in a tangle of murder, greed, and blood vengeance, the Kernohans have no choice but to get involved. And when a mysterious beauty from deep in the surrounding hills and a deadly stranger named Owen Chantry arrive, what had at first seemed like good fortune suddenly becomes a terrifying fight for life itself.

Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives.
 
In Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volumes 1, Beau L’Amour takes the reader on a guided tour through many of the finished and unfinished short stories, novels, and treatments that his father was never able to publish during his lifetime. L’Amour’s never-before-seen first novel, No Traveller Returns, faithfully completed for this program, is a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas. These exciting publications will be followed by Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 2.
 
Additionally, many beloved classics will be rereleased with an exclusive Lost Treasures postscript featuring previously unpublished material, including outlines, plot notes, and alternate drafts. These postscripts tell the story behind the stories that millions of readers have come to know and cherish.

As part of the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures series, this edition contains exclusive bonus materials!

It seemed the perfect place to lie low. The owner of the ranch was an attractive gray-haired lady who had once been an actress. The other woman was a beautiful, fragile-seeming blonde. They needed repairs done, and he needed to disappear for a while.

The first sign that things were not as they should be was when a Pinkerton man questioned him about a missing woman. Then he accidentally found a will belonging to the previous owner of the ranch. After that, a young lady showed up in town making claims that the place belonged to her.

Worried that his hideout was turning into a battleground, he didn’t know what would be more dangerous, staying or leaving. For a man interested only in passin’ through, he suddenly found himself entangled in a deadly struggle. . . .

Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives.
 
In Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 1 and Volume 2, Beau L’Amour takes the reader on a guided tour through many of the finished and unfinished short stories, novels, and treatments that his father was never able to publish during his lifetime. L’Amour’s never-before-seen first novel, No Traveller Returns, faithfully completed for this program, is a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas.
 
Additionally, many beloved classics will be rereleased with an exclusive Lost Treasures postscript featuring previously unpublished material, including outlines, plot notes, and alternate drafts. These postscripts tell the story behind the stories that millions of readers have come to know and cherish.

When beautiful Angelina Foley presents Tom Radigan with a Spanish grant and claims ownership of his land, he realizes he’s up against a cunning and deadly opportunist. Foley wants him off Vache Creek immediately, and with three thousand head of cattle, an outfit of hardcase gunfighters, and winter coming on, she is unwilling to take no for an answer.

But Radigan has worked four hard years building up his ranch. Fighting for it–and, if he has to, killing for it–is something he is more than willing to do. If Angelina Foley and her men think he is the kind of man to give up without a fight, they are dead wrong.

Rain on the Mountain Fork

Lawman, manhunter, peacemaker–it takes a hard breed of man to survive as a Texas Ranger, but Chick Bowdrie stands head and shoulders 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’s Law, you’d better start running. Fast.

Lawman, manhunter, peacemaker–it takes a hard breed of man to survive as a Texas Ranger, but Chick Bowdrie stands head and shoulders above the rest. The rough trails are his home. 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. He rides in the name of justice, but he lives by his own law. And if you’re thinking about walking on the wrong side of Bowdrie’s Law, you’d better start running. Fast.

Red Butte Showdown: Selected Unabridged Stories from May There Be a Road includes four unforgettable adventures – Red Butte Showdown, Friend of a Hero, Wings Over Brazil, and The Ghost Fighter – all previously uncollected stories, now offered for the first time together.

In the title story, the sudden arrival of a frightened, fatherless boy at Gunthorp’s cabin turns into a struggle to keep a seemingly useless piece of land out of the hands of a crooked rancher and return it to its rightful heirs. Friend of a Hero is the story of a detective who is willing to believe a woman’s unproven story about her brother’s death in order to find the painful truth in the seamy underbelly of a small town. Ponga Jim Mayo has found trouble again in Wings Over Brazil. When his ship, the Semiramis, is stolen, he stumbles onto the plot for a Nazi takeover of Brazil. In The Ghost Fighter, a look-alike takes the champ’s place in the ring, but when the scam is exposed, it’s every man for himself, and the winner gets the world heavyweight title!

Ranging from the coasts of Brazil to the very heartland of America, Red Butte Showdown: Selected Unabridged Stories from May There Be a Road exhibits the unbridled passion and the sheer genius of a true master working at the peak of his creative power.

Val Darrant was just four years old the snowy night his mother abandoned him. But instead of meeting a lonely death, he met Will Reilly—a gentleman, a gambler, and a worldly, self-taught scholar. For ten years they each were all the family the other had, traveling from dusty American boomtowns to the glittering cities of Belle Époque Europe—until the day Reilly’s luck ran out in a roar of gunfire. 

But it wasn’t a gambling brawl or a pack of thieves that sealed Will’s fate. It was a far more complex story that Val would soon uncover—one that would bring him face-to-face with the one person he least wants to see: his mother. With the help of a beautiful, street-smart rancher and the woman who was Will Reilly’s lost love, Val must close this last cruel chapter of his past before he can turn the page on an uncertain future.

In Ride the Dark Trail, Louis L’Amour tells the story of Logan Sackett, a cynical drifter who changes his ways to help a widow keep her land.

Logan Sackett is wild and rootless, riding west in search of easy living. Then he meets Emily Talon, a fiery old widow who is even wilder than he is. Tall and lean, Em is determined to defend herself against the jealous locals who are trying to take her home. Logan doesn’t want to get involved—until he finds out that Em was born a Sackett. Em is bucking overwhelming odds, but Logan won’t let her stand alone. For even the rebellious drifter knows that part of being a Sackett is backing up your family when they need you.

Alone in the big city, a fierce young frontierswoman must outsmart a dangerous con man before she can stake her claim to the family fortune.
 
Sixteen-year-old Echo Sackett has never been far from her Tennessee home—until she makes the long trek to Philadelphia to collect her inheritance. In the wilderness Echo can take care of herself as well as any man, but she never imagined the challenge that awaits: a crooked city lawyer who intends to take advantage of her by any means necessary. Echo will need all of her wits to best this scoundrel and make it back home in one piece.

InRiders of the Dawn,a young gunslinger is changed for the better by a meeting with a beautiful woman. A classic range-war western, this novel features that powerful, romantic, strangely compelling vision of the American West for which L’Amour’s fiction is known. In the author’s words, “It was a land where nothing was small, nothing was simple. Everything, the lives of men and the stories they told, ran to extremes.”

This story is one of Louis L’Amour’s early creations that have long been a source of speculation and curiosity among his fans. Early in L’Amour’s career, he wrote a number of novel-length stories for pulp-western magazines. Long after they were out of print, the characters of these early stories still haunted him, and so by revising and expanding these stories he created his first novels.

This is a must-have for the legions of fans Louis L’Amour has captivated with his unparalleledability to weave a classic tale of the West.

“Ride, You Tonto Raiders”

Matt Sabre is a young and experienced gunfighter–but not a trouble seeker. But when Billy Curtin calls him a liar and goes for his gun, Matt has no choice but to draw and fire. To his surprise, the dying man gives him $5,000 and begs him to take the money to his wife, who is alone in defending the family ranch in the Mogollons. A combination of guilt, regret, and wanting to do the right thing leads Sabre to make that ride.

“Riders of the Dawn”

A young gunslinger is changed for the better by meeting a beautiful woman. A classic range-war Western, this novel features that powerful, romantic, strangely compelling vision of the American West for which L’Amour’s fiction is known. In the author’s words, “It was a land where nothing was small, nothing was simple. Everything, the lives of men and the stories they told, ran to extremes.”

This story is one of Louis L’Amour’s early creations that have long been a source of speculation and curiosity among his fans. Early in his career, L’Amour wrote a number of novel-length stories for the pulps. Long after they were out of print, the characters of these early stories still haunted him. It was by revising and expanding these stories that L’Amour would create his first novels.

BLOOD IN THE DUST
 
The open West was a land where wanderers could find themselves a home—a home to fight for, to be changed by, sometimes to die for. Jed Asbury was one such journeyman, taking on the identity of a dead man. Allen Ring was another: He’d won his plot of land in a card game only to find he had to win again with a gun. From a has-been boxer to a ranch hand taking on his bosses’ troubles, the characters in these classic Louis L’Amour short stories are all “riding for the brand”—staying loyal to what matters, staking the West with their courage and their blood.

William Tell Sackett had followed a different path from his younger brothers, but his name, like theirs, was spoken with respect and just a little fear.  Where Orrin had brought law and order from New Mexico to the plains of Montana, backed up by the gunfighting talents of his brother Tye, Tell Sackett’s destiny drew him to Texas after he had to kill a man.  There, in the high, lonesome country, he came upon a vein of pure gold.  All he’d wanted was enough to buy a ranch, but he soon learned that gold had ways of its own with men.

After discovering six gold Roman coins buried in the mud of the Devil’s Dyke, Barnabas Sackett enthusiastically invests in goods that he will offer for trade in America. But Sackett has a powerful enemy: Rupert Genester, nephew of an earl, wants him dead. A battlefield promise made to Sackett’s father threatens Genester’s inheritance. So on the eve of his departure for America, Sackett is attacked and thrown into the hold of a pirate ship. Genester’s orders are for him to disappear into the waters of the Atlantic. But after managing to escape, Sackett makes his way to the Carolina coast. He sees in the raw, abundant land the promise of a bright future. But before that dream can be realized, he must first return to England and discover the secret of his father’s legacy.