WESTERNS

Bean, Frederic
Gunfight at Eagle Springs
1993
177p.
At 19 newlywed farmer Gabriel Miller is elected sheriff of Eagle Springs, a town where nothing has happened since the death of the Ramsey boy ten years earlier. That is, nothing until Buck Ramsey shows up to find out what happened to his little brother and why his mother disappeared the same day. Buck is a gunfighter with vengeance on his mind. How is Gabe to keep the peace? He conducts his own investigation into the death of the boy, confronting a killer who has spent the last decade covering his tracks.

Boggs, Johnny D.
The Lonesome Chisholm Trail
2001
260p.
Young Tyrell dreams of becoming a cowboy just like the men he’s read about in dime novels. Driving cattle with his Uncle Cliff along the Chisholm Trail in 1874 from Texas to Wichita, Kansas, he gets his chance. Amidst heat, blizzards, flooded rivers, and robbers, as well as humorous episodes, he discovers both the satisfactions and hard realities of life on the trail.

Eidson, Tom
St. Agnes’ Stand
1994
192p.
On the run from the buddies of a man he killed in self-defense in a West Texas town, Nat Swanson comes upon the survivors of an Apache ambush in New Mexico Territory. Three nuns and seven orphans are trapped in a cave trying to hold off the Apaches who have already tortured and killed their Mexican escorts and one nun. Nat’s coming convinces Sister St. Agnes that he is the answer to her prayers and the children’s savior. Nat isn’t so sure, but using his wits and every trick he’s ever learned, he holds off the Apaches and sneaks the children out of the cave. His ordeal, however, is not over, and salvation comes from an unlikely source.

Estleman, Loren D.
The Stranglers
1984
179p.
Marked by treachery, bravery, corruption, and acts of heroism, the Montana territory of the 1880’s was a rough a tumble place. Ranchers saw lawmen as enemies almost as often as the desperados they chased. When a gang of stranglers begins to target lawmen, deputy marshal Page Murdock forms a posse to track them. Little does he know that one of its members will turn on them and ultimately join the gang? The Wild West lives in this novel through the multifaceted characters, nonstop action and a hero who epitomizes the loner, principled lawman.

Gorman, Ed
Graves’ Retreat
1999
187p.
From the Spur Award-winning author a classic western tale of good guys, bad guys, love, redemption and…baseball???. Les Graves is trying to start over in 1880’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has a good job at the town bank, is seeing the bank owner’s daughter, and is the star pitcher for the Cedar Rapids municipal baseball team. However, he might lose it all when his bank-robbing brother, T.Z., and his partner come to town and want Les to get them inside the bank for one last job before they run away to Mexico. This fast-paced story, with a more Midwestern setting than many Westerns, treats the reader to some interesting facts about the early days of baseball.

Grey, Zane
Riders of the Purple Sage
1912
265p.
Jane Withersteen, a proud and headstrong Mormon woman, has inherited her father’s ranch in the Utah desert. Pressured by the Mormon elders to become one of the multiple wives of Elder Tulls, she fights to keep her ranch. While the Mormons constantly harass Jane, a mysterious man named Lassiter, an enemy of the Mormons, rides in and stays at her ranch as a "rider" to help Jane against the Mormon attacks. A beautifully written Western, with incredible detail of nature—right down to the purple sage.

Haseloff, Cynthia
Satanta’s Woman
1998
284p.
In 1864, the men of the Brazo’s Valley in Texas are away fighting the War Between the States while their families are left to defend their homesteads against Comanche and Kiowa Indian attacks. Adrianne Chastain, a young widow and grandmother in her mid-thirties, successfully manages her ranch until Kiowa Chief Satanta desires not only her but also her lands and cattle to sustain his own tribe through the harsh winter. Adrianne and her granddaughter Lottie are the only prisoners taken alive in the Kiowa raid on her compound. Undaunted by captivity Adrianne grows to love and appreciate the traditions of the Kiowas as well as the friendship offered her and her granddaughter by several Indian women. The bond of mutual respect, which develops between Adrianne and Chief Satanta, reveals a true love, and Haseloff’s depiction of Indian culture is enlightening and beautifully wrought without sentimentality.

Kelton, Elmer
The Smiling Country
1998
255p.
In Kelton’s 46^th novel, he catches up with his hero from The Good Old Boys twenty years down the trail West Texas cowboy Hewey Calloway is getting a little long in the saddle to keep busting broncos the way he and buddy Snort Yarnell use’ to. Seems like nothin’ stays the same: foul-smelling automobiles are replacing horses; a man’s handshake just ain’t what it use’ to be; even the face of the landscape itself is changing. Calloway is forced to come to grips with progress in the early 20^th century when his 19-year -old nephew joins him at the Circle W Ranch.

L’Amour, Louis
Down the Long Hills
1968
150p.
When their wagon train is attacked by Comanches while en route to Wyoming, all but two of the pioneers are killed. Seven-year-old Hardy Collins and three-year-old Betty Sue Powell manage to escape, beginning a relentless struggle for survival against ferocious wild animals, ruthless Indians, punishing weather and evil outlaws. This powerful story of cunning courage celebrates the frontier spirit embodied in a young boy who has learned well the lessons his father taught him about self-reliance and strength of will, now put to the ultimate test of endurance.

Lansdale, Joe R.
Blood Dance
2000
203p.
Jim Melgrhue and his Army buddy Bob Bucklaw are half- heartedly mining for gold in the Rockies when they get a better offer: stick up a train and collect gold the easy way. But the robbery goes sour, and the stylish leader of the gang, a former Confederate officer, murders his cohorts and leaves Jim for dead. Nursed back to health by one of the last mountain men, Liver-Eatin Johnston, Jim is temporarily joined on his quest for revenge by an outcast Crow warrior, a claim jumper named Honest Roy, and Wild Bill Hickok. Beautifully illustrated with pen and ink drawings, this "lost Lansdale" blends a classic shoot-‘em-up with historical characters and places for a memorable read in the L’Amour tradition.

McMurtry, Larry
Lonesome Dove
1985
843p.
Two middle-aged Texas ranchers decide to go on one last cattle drive up to Montana seeking better pasturelands and adventure. Cowboys, Indians, outlaws, romance, saloons, wild rivers, family secrets-this lengthy novel has all the elements of a classic western. But is written in a fresh, vivid style. Comanche Moon and Dead Man’s Walk are the novel’s two prequels and Streets of Laredo is its sequel.

Nesbitt, John D.
Coyote Trail
2000
262p.
Being accused of being a cattle rustler is the worst thing that can happen to a cow-puncher, and the second worst is being associated with one. Travis Quinn finds that out when he is fired from a job for knowing someone accused of the crime. When he gets a new job at Lockhart Ranch, things seem to be looking up, especially when he meets Marie, the pretty widow, who lives nearby. But trouble strikes again when his new "friend" Newman seems to be hiding some secrets that might get them both killed.

Olsen, Theodore V.
The Stalking Moon
1965
191p.
Sam Vetch, chief scout for the Army in Indian Territory is on his final mission when he encounters a white woman and her children among the captured Indians. Sara Carver, taken several years before, hopes to leave with her children and go back East. Instead, she finds herself married to Sam and living on his ranch. Unfortunately, Sam didn’t realize that his wife had been the woman of an Apache chieftain known as the Salvaje, the Ghost, and Sakvaje comes to claim his own. Those two strong men must battle using their wits and cunning to survive.

Parker, Robert B.
Gunman’s Rhapsody
2001
290p.
Mystery author Parker "changes horses" to write a western in his unmistakable style. Wyatt Earp, his "wife" Mattie, and his brothers move from Dodge City, Kansas, to Tombstone, Arizona, in the winter of 1879. There Wyatt falls in love with showgirl Josie Marcus, who has been the lover of Sheriff Johnny Behan. It is Behan’s jealousy and desire for revenge that lead to the gunfight at the O.K Corral. The action escalates as Wyatt pursues the cowboys and has a showdown with quickdraw Johnny Ringo. Period details and chronicles of current events help set the evocative scenes. A fun read, especially for fans of the movie Tombstone.

Patten, Lewis B.
Hunt the Man Down
1977
185p.
Mike Logan only did what any man would do when he came upon another man tearing the clothes off his woman. Now Jasper Diamond, the father of the man Logan killed, has vowed to hunt him down like a wolf. The local sheriff, a weak and ineffectual man, is helpless to stop Diamond, so Logan, alone and injured, is on the run in a blinding snowstorm.

Ritchie, James A.
Kerrigan
1993
187p.
Clay Kerrigan knew better than to pick a fight with the son of cattle baron Fergus Thornton. He avoided any action that would put him in jeopardy. Unfortunately, Kerrigan’s reputation preceded him, and Roland Thornton felt he had something to prove. Kerrigan had not been a gunfighter, but he was able to hold his own when required to draw his gun. As the two men argued, Fergus would not intervene. When Kerrigan killed his son, he vowed to get even, no matter how long it took or where he might have to go.

Schaefer, Jack
Shane
1949
214p.
Young Bob Starrett first sees Shane, a stranger and former gunman, riding into the Wyoming valley where he lives. Bob’s father persuades Shane to work as a hired hand on their homestead where Shane ultimately saves the family from an evil cattle baron who wants the Starrett’s land. The book ends as Shane continues on his journey. Told from Bob’s point of view, this is a book of coming–of-age, friendship and an exploration of the battle over the change from open range to homesteads in Wyoming in the late 1800’s.

Swarthout, Glendon
The Shoot
1975
186p.
Dying gunfighter J.B.Books, determined to end life on his own terms, comes to El Pase in 1901, after learning he has a terminal illness; and he moves into a rooming house to spend his final days. But his notorious reputation has preceded him, and he’s not allowed to fade quietly into the sunset.

Trevanian
Incident at Twenty-Mile
1998
308p.
The place is Twenty-Mile, a fading silver-mining town in the middle of Wyoming. Mathew, a young drifter who models himself after a character in a dime novel, arrives and soon manages to insinuate himself into the lives of the townspeople. Life goes on until one day an escaped murderer devises a plan to rob the silver mine, and Mathew becomes the lynchpin in the town’s struggle for survival. Gritty and violent; complex and thought-provoking, Incident at Twenty Mile is a classic revenge story that marks the end of the dream of the American West.

This bibliography was compiled by the following members of the Adult Reading Round Table Steering Committee: Mary Constance Back (Rolling Meadows Public Library); Ted Balcom; Darlene Bull (Joliet Public Library); Mary Cella (St Charles Public Library); Muzette Diefenthal (Arlington Heights Memorial Library); Jeanne Etling (Dundee Township Public Library Dist); Joanne Hazelden (Chicago Public Library); Debbie Hoffman (Warren Newport Library); Merle Jacob (Chicago Public Library); Roberta Johnson (Des Plaines Public Library); Karen Kleckner (Deerfield Public Library);Barb Kruser (Niles Public Library);Pam Leffler (Carol Stream PublicLibrary); Vivian Mortensen ( Park Ridge Public Library);Mary Lynn Mysz (Oak Lawn Public Library); Ricki Nordmeyer ( Skokie Public Library); Sue O’Brien ( Downers Grove Public Library); Debbie Walsh (Geneva Public Library District); and Debbie Wordinger (Indian Prairie Public Library).

This page is designed and maintained by the Rolling Meadows Library
Please direct questions and comments to: 
Mary Constance Back, ARRT Homepage Coordinator
mary.back@rmlib.org

URL http://www.rolling-meadows.lib.il.us/ARRT/
Copyright © 2000 Rolling Meadows Library

This page was last updated on 03/19/2007.