Pines and Plains Libraries

"Hewey Calloway, one of the best-loved cowboys in all of Western fiction, returns in this novel of his younger years as he and his beloved brother Walter leave the family farm in 1889 to find work in the West Texas cow country. The brothers are polar opposites. Walter pines for a sedate life as a farmer, with wife and children; Hewey is a fiddle-footed cowboy content to work at six bits--75 cents--a day on the Pecos River ranch owned by the penny-pinching...

Interweaving narratives of the residents of Midland, Texas, a widower, a spinster, a treasure hunter, and a local beauty with big dreams are all connected by place and human longing against a backdrop of greed, regret, and redemption.

In 1880s Texas, the spirited Lee Morgan is on the verge of developing the finest ranch horses the West has ever seen. When her prized mares are nearly destroyed by a band of wild, trigger-happy cowhands, Lee is infuriated and ready to spring into action to protect her horse farm.

"An explosive story of citizens' rights, government wrongs, and freedom's last stand--deep in the heart of Texas. When a West Texas rancher stands against the government's attempt to seize his ranch, an army of ordinary citizens rise up to join his fight against tyranny"--

Ben Flood, marshall of the small town of Burnt Rock in post-Civil War Texas, comes face-to-face with an old nemesis when a marauding band of thieves robs the local bank. Zeb Stone, hardened and full of rage toward his arch enemy, kidnaps the strong-willed rancher Lee Morgan to lure the marshall into danger. Determined to re-create his first gunfight with Flood, Stone leads his pursuer through the parched desert of south Texas and into LaRosa, Mexico....

Lee Morgan dreams of raising the ideal ranch horse-one that has speed, stamina, and heart. On her Texas spread near the town of Burnt Rock, the high-spirited woman heads her own horse ranch operation. It's an unusual occupation for a female in the 1870s, but as an expert horsewoman and a crack shot with a rifle, she's quite adept at taking care of herself. Determined to gain fame for her fine horses, Lee agrees to enter her magnificent coal-black...

The Stuart-Schurtz party risks everything to seek a mysterious canyon on the Texas frontier of 1877. The age-old quest for home lies behind this radical disruption of their lives. A unique communion develops among them, as they face the challenges of the trail and search for what might not exist. Still, their gravest trials are served up by an agent of evil who commits his powers, physical and spiritual, to their destruction.

"The Shady Hill Mobile Home Park isn's shady or hilly: this is West Texas, after all. To military vet John Howard Stark, it's home. And worth fighting for. A vicious Mexican drug cartel starts terrorizing the residents of Shady Hill--retirees mostly--leaving severed heads in vegetable gardens to scare them out. As usual, the Feds and the local police run for cover. The good people of Shady Hill make a stand, electing Stark as their chief of police....