LITMIR.BIZ

Cottonwood (2004) was a huge step forward for the burgeoning king of noir Scott Phillips, and his dark and gritty take on the western earned him starred reviews and praise from crime masters Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos. That novel featured the Kansas town beginning in 1872 when it was just a small community of run down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden thought it could be more and allied with wealthy developer Marc Leval to capitalize on the advent of the railroad and the cattle trail that soon turned Cottonwood into a wild boomtown. But problems followed the money and soon Bill was confronting both the wicked family of serial killers known as the Bloody Benders as well as his one-time friend Marc, having fallen into an affair with his beautiful wife Maggie. Bill then turned up alone in San Francisco in 1890, having to face a past from which he could not run.But what happened to him in those missing years? What happened to Maggie, to Bill, and their escape from the murderous Bender family?Hop Alley answers all those questions as we return to the Wild West and discover Bill Ogden, now living as Bill Sadlaw, running a photo studio near the Chinese part of town know as Hop Alley in the frontier town of Denver in 1878. Left by Maggie, Bill enjoys an erotic affair with Priscilla, a fallen singer addicted to laudanum, who is also seeing his friend Ralph Banbury, the editor of the local Denver Bulletin (neither man minds sharing). Bill’s peaceful time away from Cottonwood turns anything but as he must confront the mysterious murder of his housekeeper’s brother-in-law, the increasing instability of Priscilla as both men try to ease out of her clutches, and an all out-riot across Hop Alley. And when the body count starts rising, Bill will soon start wishing he had never left Cottonwood at all.Hop Alley proves that no one does the Wild West like noir master Scott Phillips.

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The charge was murder—and now Tom Holden had big trouble on his hands. First, he'd held off the town bully, big Crogan, and his men single-handedly. Then he announced he would marry Alexa Larrame, beautiful blue-eyed daughter of the wealthiest rancher around—even though he'd never even met her!<P>
But now he had a lot more than just a rash promise to live up to. He was being accused of murder in a town where the strong make the laws—and enforce them with bullets!

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John Milman may be a powerful rancher, but when a crooked business man challenges the ownership of his land, things look bleak. Only the Kid – who fancies Milman's daughter – may be able to set things right.

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The Second Zane Grey MEGAPACK® collects 6 more classic Zane Grey stories. Included are:<P> WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND<BR> TAPPAN’S BURRO<BR> THE GREAT SLAVE<BR> YAQUI<BR> TIGRE<BR> THE RUBBER HUNTER<P> If you enjoy this ebook, check out the more than 350 other volumes in the MEGAPACK® series, which include classic and modern tales of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, adventure, and much, much more! Search for «Wildside Megapack» in your favorite ebook store to see the complete list of available titles.

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Skeleton Trail was lined with the corpses of countless peons, ranchers, and lawmen who had died or vanished at the hands of Veck Sosna and his vicious Comancheros. Walt Slade found the trail and followed it into the dread Valley of Tears where Sosna and his killer gang holed up between the sudden, ruthless raids they made, Then Slade moved singlehanded into the valley where sudden death marked every step!

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Dust storms, water shortages, and barbed wire – all the ingredients needed for a range war! A classic short novel by Max Brand, originally published in The American Magazine in 1937.

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They were desperate men, ready to kill for a handful of dust…gold dust!

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Larry McCall inched his way up to the lighted window. Inside, outlaw Ross Doyle talked excitedly with his henchmen. Suddenly he slammed his fist on the table. <P> "That damned polecat's escaped again?" He pushed his chair from the table and headed for the door. «Come on, fellas, we got to move fast!» <P> Larry faded into the darkness outside. The hunt for him was on…

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"SOONER OR LATER I'LL HAVE TO SMASH YOU!"<P> That was Rawe North’s thanks to Tripp Devero, who'd saved him from a knife in the back. Being ranchers, they sided each other against the riffraff of the city. Yet back on the range it was a fight to the death. The country was big, but not big enough for both of them. <P> So when Rawe returned to find his cattle rustled, his men dead or deserted, his range burned, he vowed to settle accounts with Tripp Devero in gunfire. But first he had an empire to win back. There was one way for Rawe to get cattle fast – to steal them; one way for him to keep them – to murder for them. But he saved one bullet for Tripp Devero, staking everything on his gun to make the final payment in revenge.

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Throughout the length and breadth of the sun-bleached cow town of Mescal, Arizona, seethes an undercurrent of suppressed excitement. In front of the town’s blacksmith shop a group of Mormon homesteaders gather about their potential leader, Webb Nichols, in grave discussion. In a lodge room the special meeting of the Magdalena Stockmen’s Association, comprising the big cow outfits of the county, has turned into a deluge of hot words and very pointed accusations. Is the long conflict between the homesteaders and the big outfits about to flare into violence again?<P> For years this particular part of Arizona has been a rustler’s paradise. And as long as homesteaders like Webb Nichols and Shad Caney cover up for the rustlers, the notorious Steve Jennings among them, they’re asking for trouble from the big cattlemen. The Association decides to bring matters to a head by calling in Clay Roberts, a lone wolfer stock-detective with a reputation for getting results. “It don’t seem like one man could make much hell for us,’’ says Webb Nichols, but in that thought Webb, as he is soon to discover, couldn’t be more wrong.<P> Clay Roberts has a couple of strikes on him from the beginning in Deputy Sheriff Dufors, a weak and embittered tool of the homesteaders, and in Webb and Shad, whose bitter, unreasoning feud is carried on by their children during school hours. These youthful hatreds make life miserable for the pretty new teacher, Eudora Stoddard, who is startled one day to find herself sheltering the head of the rustlers, Steve Jennings.<P> From then on matters get tougher by the minute. Men who should be seeing eye to eye regard one another with cold hostility, the grisly episode at Parley Scott’s takes place, the rustlers move in on one of the big cowmen and Clay heads for the hills in deadly pursuit, only to find himself forced to save the life of the dangerous rustler he is hired to capture. And that is only the beginning of new trouble for the fearless stock-detective, the cattlemen, and pretty Eudora Stoddard, whom Clay had hoped to make his wife.

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