When Tom Quinn first came to the little patch of prairie that would become Stratton, it wasn’t paradise, but it was close. The town he built there was beautiful in a humble way, an honest Western village where hardworking settlers came to make new lives. When Tom moved on, he left a happy town behind him. And then a man called Shelley Peebles came and turned it into hell.Backed up by a gang of hired guns, Peebles pushed out the small landowners, using money and muscle to corrupt the village and its people. Only one man stood in his way—the veteran gunman Tyler Holt—and so Peebles used his influence to have Holt lynched. This outrage brings Quinn back to the town he loved so much—not to save it, but to wipe it off the earth.

Driven off their land, a gang of settlers turns to a life of crimeA few miles outside of town lies the Tanglewood, a savage maze choked with inedible plants and overrun with deadly animals. The sharpest trackers in the West would lose themselves in the Tanglewood, but for those who know its secrets, it is an invaluable refuge.Dan Sumner and his friends are honorable men, and in this part of the prairie, that means they are a dying breed. Forced from their homesteads by a gang of corrupt Eastern businessmen, the guys turn desperado. To drive their tormentors out, they rob the town bank by moonlight. But when the sheriff and his deputies are waiting for them, a vicious gunfight leads them to take refuge in the Tanglewood—where good men go to die.

Framed for murder, an honest man rides over the desert to clear his nameJake Shockley has his feet up in the tavern when his twin comes through the door. The stranger isn't his brother, but may as well be, and Jake sees opportunity there—a chance to erase years of warrants and wanted posters with a single quick kill. He lures his lookalike into the alley, knocks him out, and waits until a rider comes along. Jake shoots his twin through the heart and skips town, leaving Giles Clanahan to take the blame.At first, Clanahan is praised for killing the notorious bandit, but when the townspeople realize the dead man isn't Shockley, they sentence Giles to hang. He escapes, and sets out across the desert, planning to bring justice to the man who framed him—even if it means dying in the sand.

When a driver is killed, a young man takes the reinsThe stagecoach rumbles toward Yuma when Tom Quinn hears the war whoop. A dozen Apaches strike, hungry for blood. Their first volley finds the driver, forcing Quinn to drive with one hand and shoot with the other. By the time the attack eases up, he is down to his last bullet. As the Apache pull back, the horses bolt, and the wagon flips on its side. Tom is trying to get it upright when two more riders approach.Escorted by Sheriff Mike Hancock, the accused murderer is on his way to Yuma prison—and now, he's Quinn's problem. Yuma may only be one hundred miles away, but night falls faster with a killer at your back.

Sarah cannot speak. Born with the ability, but having lost the inclination, Sarah lives in silence, surrounded by the noise of her bickering family, who are gathered to discuss the selling of the family homestead. But there is no room for sentiment and a young, selectively mute girl is not a burden any of them want to shoulder. During an escape from the madness in which she was raised, she is befriended by a young man who finds her silence eloquent. Knowing nothing about her, and unable to learn, the two must communicate via a deeper language. And Sarah must re-learn her understanding of people, and men, if she is to escape from underneath the black cloud of her family. A haunting and sophisticated account of the human mind's ability to shut out the world's darkest horrors and flourish at the touch of kindness, The Moon Around Sarah is a finely observed tribute to the strength of the soul.

In the barren Sonora desert, a thirsty drifter makes a promise to a dying manFresh out of jail, John Magadan sets out for the oasis of Coyote Wells. When he finds the spring dried up, he knows he will likely die. He trudges on, and hears a voice calling from the sands—a gutshot man pleading for water that John does not have to give. The man presses silver into John's hand, begging him to take it to Yuma, to tell his sweetheart how he died. John agrees, even though he sees no chance of making it there alive.Soon after he rides on, John's horse gives out, sending him crashing to the ground unconscious. When he comes to, he's in an unfamiliar place, being interrogated by men who suspect him of killing the man in the desert. Killers, lawmen, and Yaqui Indians all want John Magadan's hide. He survived the desert, but the trip to Yuma will be deadly.

After two years in jail, a cowboy searches for his sweetheartIt's bold for a cowhand to woo his boss's daughter, but John Tanner can't help loving Becky Canasta. Their courtship is upended by Matt Doyle, a spurned admirer who considers Becky to be his property—and is willing to kill to keep it that way. He is about to have his revenge when Becky draws a small pistol and shoots him through the heart. To save her from the gallows, John takes the blame. He receives only two years in prison for his gallantry. Once freed, he returns to the ranch to see if he still holds Becky's favor, but the place is ransacked—and Becky is nowhere to be found. Desperate to save the woman for whom he sacrificed his freedom, John sets off in pursuit of the kidnappers, who are on the trail of a legendary treasure. He must find it first if he ever wants to see Becky alive again.

Chased by bandits, stagecoach passengers race for their livesEleanor Gates is a long way from Baltimore. Love for a cavalry lieutenant has lured her across the western plains, to an outpost so remote that it can only be reached by overland stage. Accompanying her on this dusty, uncomfortable journey is her aged aunt, a leering salesman, and a mysterious stranger named Riley. As dusk falls, Eleanor spies a dust cloud on the horizon—a band of comancheros come to rob the stage, and kill its passengers. Riley's quick shooting wards off the bandits, but the driver is fatally wounded. It's up to him to get them to safety, but he's not sure he wants to take them there.His real name is Cameron Black, a notorious outlaw who will hang if he sets foot inside an army fort. But there are women in danger, wounded to think of, and the comancheros will strike again soon. There's no way to go but forward.

In a cutthroat western town, a newcomer is tricked into helping an outlawAfter three days in a stagecoach, Chad Dempster is weary, dusty, and sore. On his first step into Las Palmas, he slips, and crashes face first into the dirt. His clumsiness earns him a nickname—Tanglefoot—and the sympathy of Glen Walker, one of the most powerful men in town. Walker buys Chad lunch, finds him a place to stay, and gets him a job driving the stagecoach. He seems like the best friend a newcomer could have—but he is setting Tanglefoot up to die.On Chad's first run with the stage, a crew of bandits open fire on him. He is saved only by the quick shooting of a mysterious passenger. But why did the outlaws quit so easily? And if the passenger was the one who saved him, why did Chad not see him draw his gun? Trapped in a conspiracy he can't understand, Tanglefoot must move quick to stay alive, or risk something much worse than falling on his face.

A natural tracker does all he can to help a woman escape the Dakota TerritoryWhen the harsh winters of the Black Hills snuffed out his father's life, Miles Donovan was left with no inheritance but knowledge of every trail, creek, and ridge in the Dakota territories. He put his scouting instincts to work for the US cavalry, helping them chase Sioux raiding parties across terrain where few white men dared to tread. It was in that unforgiving country that he learned to hate Tom DeFord, a savage gunman whom Miles once saw kill a Blackfoot woman in cold blood.His scouting days behind him, Miles is cooling his heels in Deadwood when the beautiful Della Adair hires him to escort her out of town, and across the dangerous Dakota plains. When Tom DeFord comes after Della and her gold, Miles will make a stand, turning his guns against the deadliest killer the Dakota Territories  have ever known.