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Old West Novels:Historical Novels of the American Old WestFor news on the latest additions to this website, see the blog. Jump to: Ranchers, Gunslingers, Lawmen and Outlaws Young Adult Novels of the Old West 
The vast literature of the American Old West evolved from dime novels of the late 1800s which portrayed life on the frontier as an idealized clash pitting virtuous cowboys and lawmen against "savage" Indians or outlaw gunfighters. Classic "Westerns" by writers like Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour in the early to mid-twentieth century generally retained this romanticized approach, but most modern writers present a more realistic view of Western history. Native Americans have been portrayed with more sympathy in recent decades and, increasingly, as complex individuals who are neither vilified nor idealized. Native American authors have been among the most distinguished contributors to Western literature. Some of the most dramatic events in the history of the Old West included the 1849 California Gold Rush, the 1835 Texas Revolution, and the 1845 U.S-Mexican War which resulted in a broad swathe of the Southwest being transferred from Mexico to the U.S. Categories overlap, so if you don't find what you're looking for in one category, try another. The "Native Americans" section also includes novels about Indian wars and about European and African Americans who lived with various tribes.
Ranchers, Gunslingers, Lawmen and Outlaws
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Clifton Adams, The Last Days of Wolf Garnett Tamera Alexander, Within My Heart (2009), historical romance about a young widow running a ranch in the Colorado Territory who must decide which of two men to marry; Christian message; currently available in audio format only. Amelia Bean, The Feud Amelia Bean, Time for Outrage Larry Bjornson, Wide Open (2012), about the son of a cattleman in Abilene, Kansas, a town roiling with conflict between ranchers and farmers in 1871 when Wild Bill Hickok is brought in to keep order. Margaret Brownley, Dawn Comes Early (2012), historical romance about a Boston woman in 1895 who writes dime novels and, when her latest novel is banned for immorality, goes to the Arizona Territory to take over a cattle ranch; Christian message. Emma Bull, Territory (2007), historical fantasy which imagines the shoot-out at the OK Corral as a battle between occult forces. Cliff Burns, The Last Hunt Terry W. Burns, Mysterious Ways Terry W. Burns, Brother's Keeper Terry W. Burns, Shepherd's Son Katrina Carrasco, The Best Bad Things (2018), about a woman working for a smuggling ring in Washington State who disguises herself as a man to track down and recover a batch of stolen opium. Forrest Carter, The Outlaw Josey Wales Forrest Carter, The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales Walter van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident (1940), a literary novel about the lynching of three innocent men by a mob bent on vigilante justice in 1885. Thomas Cobb, Shavetail (2008), about a 17-year-old Connecticut boy serving in the U.S. Army in Arizona Territory when an Apache attack leads them to take on a near-suicidal mission. Victoria Dahl, The Wicked West Duane DeMello, The Denton Mare (2008), about the Texas outlaw Sam Bass, from his horse racing exploits to his train robberies and the shoot-out in the town of Round Rock; self-published. Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers (2011), a comic novel about two brothers hired in the 1850s to go to San Francisco to kill a man. Pete Dexter, Deadwood, about an aging Wild Bill Hickok who finds he cannot lay down his guns because of a host of vicious characters eager to challenge him. Marilyn Durham, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing Thomas Eidson, St. Agnes' Stand, about a man on the run who saves a group of nuns from an Apache attack in the Old West; 1994 Spur Award winner.
Loren D. Estleman, The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion (2006), about a man who arranges for one of the actors in his traveling theater troupe to rob the local bank while the others perform. Loren D. Estleman, The Undertaker's Wife Loren D. Estleman, Black Powder, White Smoke (2002), about two killers, one black and one white, whose paths converge in Denver. Loren D. Estleman, The Master Executioner (2001), about a hangman in the Old West. Loren D. Estleman, The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association (1999), about a fledgling motion picture company in 1913 Los Angeles. Loren D. Estleman, Journey of the Dead Loren D. Estleman, Billy Gashade: An American Epic (1997), about a man who plays the piano in saloons and bawdy houses in the Old West. Loren D. Estleman, The Hider Loren D. Estleman, Sudden Country Loren D. Estleman, Bloody Season Loren D. Estleman, Gun Man Loren D. Estleman, This Old Bill Loren D. Estleman, Mister St. John Loren D. Estleman, The Wolfer Loren D. Estleman, Aces and Eights Loren D. Estleman, The High Rocks Loren D. Estleman, Stamping Ground (1980), about a lawman's quest to capture a Cheyenne chief; #2 in the Page Murdock series. Loren D. Estleman, Murdock's Law (1982), about a lawman's quest to bring order to an Old West town; #3 in the Page Murdock series. Loren D. Estleman, The Stranglers Loren D. Estleman, City of Widows (1994), about a retired lawman running a saloon in New Mexico; #5 in the Page Murdock series. Loren D. Estleman, White Desert (2000), about a lawman pursuing a gang of criminals into Canada; #6 in the Page Murdock series. Loren D. Estleman, Port Hazard (2004), about a lawman from the American West on the Barbary Coast; #7 in the Page Murdock series. Loren D. Estleman, The Book of Murdock and Cape Hell (2010 and 2016), about a Deputy U.S. Marshal who poses as a minister to stay alive while tracking down the members of a gang terrorizing the Texas panhandle (The Book of Murdock) and who goes to Cape Hell, Mexico, to find out the truth behind a report that a former Confederate is raising an army to revive the American Civil War (Cape Hell); #8 and #12 in the Page Murdock series, in a 2017 edition containing both novels. Loren D. Estleman, Wild Justice (2018), about a Deputy U.S. Marshal who accompanies the body of a judge on his funeral train and reflects on what he has witnessed of the judge's thirty-year career; #13 in the Page Murdock series.
K.R. Fitch, Revenge David Fuller, Sundance (2014), a novel which imagines that Harry Longbaugh - the Sundance Kid - does not die in the shootout in Bolivia, but survives to serve time in a Wyoming prison, is released in 1913 into a greatly changed world, and goes to New York City in search of his wife, Etta Place. Patricia Gaffney, Crooked Hearts Brian Garfield, Wild Times (1978), about the adventures of a gunslinger and Indian fighter; made into a TV miniseries starring Sam Elliott. Brian Garfield, Manifest Destiny Molly Gloss, The Hearts of Horses (2007), about a nineteen-year-old girl who goes to work on an Oregon ranch in 1917. Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), about a Mormon-hating cowboy and a young Mormon woman who fall chastely in love when he helps her defend her ranch; perhaps the best-known of Zane Grey's numerous (over 50) romanticized novels of the Old West. A.B. Guthrie, Jr., These Thousand Hills (1956), about a Montana cattle rancher who dreams of prosperity as both the natural world and human nature frustrate his intentions. Charles Hackenberry, Friends Oakley Hall, Warlock (1958), about a gunfighter whose efforts to restore order as a newly minted lawman in a fictional Old West town ultimately lead to greater violence. Dana Hand, Deep Creek (2010), about a small-town judge in Idaho who investigates a massacre of Chinese miners along the Snake River and tries to bring the killers to justice. Review Ron Hansen, Desperadoes, about the last surviving member of the Dalton Gang who revives his memories of old times writing adventure stories for Hollywood. Will Henry, I, Tom Horn (1975), a psychological portrait of an Indian fighter and rodeo rider who was capable of both compassion and cold-blooded murder. William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone, Butch Cassidy: The Lost Years (2013), a novel which imagines what might have happened if Butch Cassidy had survived the 1908 shootout in Bolivia. Andrew Joyce, Redemption Anna Keesey, Little Century (2012), about an eighteen-year-old Chicago girl who migrates to Oregon as a homesteader after she is orphaned, and discovers herself in the middle of a range war. Elmer Kelton, Slaughter, about buffalo hunters in the Old West; 1992 Spur Award winner. Elmer Kelton, The Far Canyon Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs, Last Go Round, about bronc busting at the Pendleton Round-Up in 1911. Gerald Kolpan, Etta (2009), a novel which imagines that Etta Place, the refined young woman who became the outlaw companion of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, began life as a banker's daughter in Philadelphia. Robert Knott, Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse (2013), a Western which continues Robert B. Parker's "Cole and Hitch" series with a story about two U.S. marshals pursuing a gang of train robbers; #5 in the Cole and Hitch series (see listings below under Robert B. Parker). Robert Knott, Robert B. Parker’s Bull River (2014), about a lawman and his deputy who, after capturing a murderer and bringing him to the town where he is to be tried, are faced with another crime to investigate; #6 in the Cole and Hitch series (see listings below under Robert B. Parker). Al and Joanna Lacy, Outlaw Marshal (2009), about a federal marshal who persuades an outlaw to go straight and then tries to save him from hanging when a pair of train robbers frame him for murder; Christian message. Joe R. Lansdale, Paradise Sky (2015), about a former slave from post-Civil War Texas who must flee an irate white man, and his travels through the West. Melissa Lenhardt, Heresy (2018), about two women who turn outlaw and form an all-female gang after they are run off their farm by a greedy cattleman. Richard Liebmann-Smith, The James Boys: A Novel Account of Four Desperate Brothers (2008), a novel which imagines what might have happened if outlaws Frank and Jesse James had been been the younger brothers of philosopher William James and novelist Henry James. Richard Matheson, Journal of the Gun Years, a dark psychological study of a man was an outlaw and a lawman at various times; 1991 Spur Award winner. J.D. McCall, Four Horses Dead Ringer
Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, a dark literary novel about a Texas man’s journey into Mexico in 1948; #1 in the Border Trilogy. Review at Bookreporter.com Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing, a dark literary novel about a boy who captures a wolf and crosses into Mexico with it during the 1940s; #2 in the Border Trilogy. Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plains, a dark literary novel about two young ranch hands in 1952 New Mexico; #3 in the Border Trilogy.
Michael McGarrity, Hard Country (2012), about a Texas rancher who goes to the New Mexico Territory in search of his brother's killer in 1875, where a job trailing cattle changes his life. Michael McGarrity, Backlands (2014), about a New Mexico family in the years after World War I, through the Depression and World War II; sequel to Hard Country.
Larry McMurtry, Streets of Laredo (1993), about a bounty hunter and a Mexican bandit in the Old West; sequel to Lonesome Dove. Larry McMurtry, Dead Man’s Walk (1995), about two young Texas Rangers; prequel to Lonesome Dove. Larry McMurtry, Comanche Moon (1997), about conflicts between Indians and Texas Rangers; prequel to Lonesome Dove and sequel to Dead Man’s Walk; 1998 Spur Award winner. Larry McMurtry, Telegraph Days, about a woman who takes over a telegraph office in a small town in the Oklahoma Territory and becomes involved with many of the legendary gunfighters of the Old West. Larry McMurtry, Anything for Billy, about Billy the Kid. Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls Larry McMurtry, The Last Kind Words Saloon (2014), about the friendship of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.
Kerry Newcomb, Texas Anthem Kerry Newcomb, Texas Born Kerry Newcomb, Shadow Walker Kerry Newcomb, Rogue River Kerry Newcomb, Creed's Law
Robert B. Parker, Resolution (2008), about a pair of gunslingers who relocate in a newly built copper-mining town as conflict looms between the miners and the local ranchers; #2 in the Cole and Hitch series. Robert B. Parker, Brimstone (2009), about a pair of gunslingers in search of the woman one of them once loved, who ran off with another man; #3 in the Cole and Hitch series. Robert B. Parker, Blue-Eyed Devil (2010), about a pair of gunslingers in trouble after a crooked new sheriff arrives and a showdown looms; #4 in the Cole and Hitch series (see above for a continuation of the series by Robert Knott). Robert B. Parker, Gunman's Rhapsody (2001), about Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the shootout at the OK Corral. Review at Bookreporter.com
Charles Portis, True Grit (1968), about a woman’s pursuit of the farmhand who murdered her father. Conrad Richter, Sea of Grass (1936), about conflicts between farmers and ranchers in late nineteenth century New Mexico. Frank Roderus, Jason Evers: His Own Story Mary Doria Russell, Doc (2011), about Doc Holliday's struggle with life and tuberculosis while living in Dodge City, Kansas. Review Mary Doria Russell, Epitaph (2015), about Doc Holliday and the 1881 shootout at the OK Corral; sequel to Doc. Jim Satterfield, The River's Song Jack Schaefer, Shane, about a former gunslinger who stays with a family in a small Montana town. Lauraine Snelling, Valley of Dreams (2011), about a young woman who works as a trick rider for her late father's Wild West show, which she discovers has been bankrupted by its manager; Christian message; #1 in the planned Wild West Wind series. Gary Svee, Sanctuary, about the conflicts that erupt when a traveling minister rides into a brutal Montana ranching town; 1990 Spur Award winner. Glendon Swarthout, The Shootist Miles Swarthout, The Last Shootist (2014), a coming-of-age novel about an eighteen-year-old boy who thinks his killing of a famous gunfighter will bring him fame and glory; a sequel to The Shootist, the 1975 novel by Glendon Swarthout, the author's father.
Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Last Crossing (2004), about two Englishmen searching for their brother, who has gone missing in Indian country somewhere in Canada or the U.S.; #2 in a trilogy. Guy Vanderhaeghe, A Good Man (2012), about a wealthy Canadian's son who tries to make it as a rancher in Montana, where he is not welcomed; #3 in a trilogy.
Anna Lee Waldo, Prairie: The Legend of Charles Burton Irwin and the Y6 Ranch (1986), a long, thoroughly researched novel about C.B. Irwin, who became a prominent rancher in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was involved with such legendary Westerners as Buffalo Bill Cody, Will Rogers, painter Charlie Russell and outlaw Tom Horn; published both as a single volume and in two volumes. Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses (2009), about a woman who grew up on a New Mexico ranch, becomes a schoolteacher in Arizona at fifteen, moves to Chicago for a time, and then returns to the ranching life in Arizona; based on the life of the author's grandmother. Kaki Warner, Pieces of Sky (2010), historical romance about a pregnant Englishwoman who travels to the American West to make a new life for herself and meets a New Mexico rancher with a violent past; #1 in the Blood Rose trilogy. Kaki Warner, Open Country (2010), historical romance about a woman desperate to protect her sister's children who marries a man injured in a railroad disaster in order to claim the widow's settlement when he dies; #2 in the Blood Rose trilogy. Donald E. Westlake and Brian Garfield, Gangway! Richard S. Wheeler, Masterson, the aging ex-gunfighter Bat Masterson makes an impulsive trip west to revisit the legendary scenes of his former life; 2000 Spur Award winner. Victoria Wilcox, Inheritance (2013), about John Henry Holliday (later known as Doc Holliday), beginning with his boyhood in Georgia; #1 in the planned Southern Son series. Jeanne Williams, Home Mountain Owen Wister, The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (1902), about conflicts among cattlemen in 1890s Wyoming. Joe Yogerst, Nemesis: A Novel of Old California (2018), about a US marshal and a newspaper reporter, once best friends, now bitter enemies because of a woman, in the dangerous San Diego boomtown of the 1880s. Native Americans
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Hervey Allen, The Forest and the Fort Hervey Allen, Bedford Village Hervey Allen, Toward the Morning Hervey Allen, City in the Dawn
Elliott Arnold, Blood Brother, about the friendship between Cochise, chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, and the Indian agent Tom Jeffords. Catherine Bell, Rush of Shadows (2014), about two women, one white and one Native American, who become unlikely friends as tensions flare between the two cultures in nineteenth-century northern California. Thomas Berger, Little Big Man (1964), the humorous but unflinching tale of a white man raised by Indians in the Old West. Thomas Berger, The Return of Little Big Man (1999), sequel to Little Big Man. Irwin Blacker, Taos, about the Pueblo Revolt in northern New Mexico. Win Blevins, Stone Song, about the Sioux war chief Crazy Horse; 1995 Spur Award winner; 1996 Mountains and Plains Bookseller Award winner. Win Blevins, The Powder River Win Blevins, Ravenshadow, a modern Lakota Sioux makes a pilgrimage to Wounded Knee and experiences a vision of the 1890 massacre of his people that took place there. Dee Alexander Brown, Creek Mary’s Blood, about a Creek Indian woman and her descendants. Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree (1976), the fictional “memoir” of a Cherokee man, actually written by the white segregationist Asa Earl Carter. Kelly and Tricia Cheek, All We Hold Dear (2013), about a present-day woman and a young Englishwoman whose diary describes her 1829 efforts to evade an organization that wants her silver artifact amid the conflicts leading to the Trail of Tears march. Alan Cheuse, To Catch the Lightning (2008), about Edward Curtis, who gave up his career as a studio photographer and left his wife and children to travel the West photographing Native Americans. Frederick J. Chiaventone, A Road We Do Not Know, an unromanticized novel about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Frederick J. Chiaventone, Moon of Bitter Cold Amanda Cockrell, When the Horses Came Amanda Cockrell, Children of the Horse Amanda Cockrell, The Rain Child Will Levington Comfort, Apache (1931), a biographical novel about Mangas Colorados, a chief of the Chiricahua Apaches.
Robert J. Conley, The Dark Way Robert J. Conley, The White Path Robert J. Conley, The Way South, about a young Cherokee trader who tries to persuade the tribes south of his own to band together with his own against Spanish invaders; #4 in the Real People series. Robert J. Conley, The Long Way Home, about a priest forced to serve as the conquistador De Soto's interpreter, who tries to escape and warn the Cherokee of his coming; #5 in the Real People series. Robert J. Conley, The Dark Island, about the son of a Spaniard and a Cherokee who must decide whether to join the Spanish or help to defend the Cherokee; won the 1995 Spur Award for the Western Novel; #6 in the Real People series. Robert J. Conley, The War Trail North Robert J. Conley, War Woman Robert J. Conley, The Peace Chief Robert J. Conley, Cherokee Dragon Robert J. Conley, Spanish Jack Robert J. Conley, Geronimo: An American Legend Robert J. Conley, Mountain Windsong: A Novel of the Trail of Tears, about the forced removal of the Cherokees from their homeland to Oklahoma in the 1830s. Robert J. Conley, Ned Christie's War, an innocent Cherokee accused of murder becomes a warrior for justice. Robert J. Conley, Nickajack, about a murder trial in the years following the Trail of Tears march; 1992 Spur Award winner. Robert J. Conley, Zeke Proctor: Cherokee Outlaw Robert J. Conley, The Long Trail North Robert J. Conley, Captain Dutch Robert J. Conley, Incident at Buffalo Crossing Robert J. Conley, Medicine War Robert J. Conley, Killing Time Robert J. Conley, Colfax Robert J. Conley, Quitting Time Robert J. Conley, Fugitive's Trail Robert J. Conley, A Cold Hard Trail Robert J. Conley, The Devil's Trail Robert J. Conley, Barjack (2000), a humorous novel about a marshal in a small Old West town; #1 in the Barjack series. Robert J. Conley, Broke Loose Robert J. Conley, The Gunfighter Robert J. Conley, No Need for a Gunfighter (2008), a humorous novel about a lawman who risks his life trying to hold onto his job after his town decides it has grown too respectable to have a gunfighter as their sheriff; #4 in the Barjack series. Robert J. Conley, Barjack and the Unwelcome Ghost (2009), a humorous novel about a marshal who must maintain order (and profits) when bank robbers ride into town with a vengeful Cherokee in hot pursuit; #5 in the Barjack series. Robert J. Conley, Strange Company Robert J. Conley, Border Line Robert J. Conley, Go Ahead Rider Robert J. Conley, To Make a Killing Robert J. Conley, Outside the Law
Eric Flint, 1812: The Rivers of War, a novel of alternative history about what might have happened if the Cherokees had teamed up with African-Americans to create an independent nation in Arkansas. Eric Flint, The Arkansas War, a novel of alternative history about what might have happened if the Cherokees had teamed up with African-Americans to create an independent nation in Arkansas; sequel to 1812: The Rivers of War. Sharon Ewell Foster, Abraham’s Well (2006), about the black slaves of the Cherokee on the 1838 Trail of Tears. Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons (2006), about a white man adopted by the Cherokee. W. Michael Gear, The Morning River (1996), a philosophy student turned riverboatman in 1825 falls in love with a Shoshoni medicine woman. W. Michael Gear, Coyote Summer (1997), about an educated white man and his search for the Shoshoni woman he loves, who has returned to her people to prepare them for the onslaught of white people about to move west; sequel to The Morning River.
Cynthia Haseloff, Satanta's Woman: A Western Story Cynthia Haseloff, The Kiowa Verdict, about a Kiowa war party put on trial in a Texas courtroom; 1998 Spur Award winner. Cynthia Haseloff, Man Without Medicine
Joyce Henderson, Walks In Shadow Joyce Henderson, Written on the Wind Will Henry, From Where the Sun Now Stands, about Chief Joseph and his 1877 trek to lead the Nez Perce from their reservation in Oregon to a new home 1,000 miles away in Montana. Ruth Beebe Hill, Hanta Yo Paul Horgan, A Distant Trumpet Gerald Kolpan, Magic Words (2012), about a Jewish immigrant who becomes an interpreter for a Ponca Indian tribe in 1867 Nebraska, his magician cousins and a murderous prostitute. Review or Author Interview Oliver La Farge, Laughing Boy, a love story about a young Navajo couple in 1915. Deborah Larsen, The White, about a sixteen-year-old white woman captured by Indians. K.B. Laugheed, The Spirit Keeper (2013), about the youngest girl in a family of Irish immigrants who is taken captive in 1747 at age seventeen by a young Indian man who has seen her in a vision. Alan LeMay, The Searchers (1954), about the violence between Indians and white settlers in the Old West and how it affected the survivors; the classic John Wayne movie was based on this novel. Joseph M. Marshall III, Hundred in the Hand, set in Wyoming, about the Battle of the Hundred in the Hand and the Fetterman Massacre from the point of view of the Lakota Indians. Gary McCarthy, River Thunder Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Zeke and Ned, about the last Cherokee warriors. Marjorie Mogonye, Flowers and Foxes, about a Choctaw family during the government's forced removal of the tribe from their Nanih Waya ancestral land in Mississipi to Oklahoma's Indian Territory. N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1968), about a man from a Pueblo Indian reservation after the end of World War II; won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969; set during the author's lifetime, so not a true historical novel. N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969), about the author’s Kiowa ancestors from the myths of their origins in Montana to their relocation on an Oklahoma reservation. Brian Moore, Black Robe (1985), about a seventeenth-century Jesuit mission to the Algonquins in Quebec. Review
Vella Munn, Soul of the Sacred Earth, about a Catholic missionary to the Hopi. Vella Munn, Seminole Song Vella Munn, Cheyenne Summer Vella Munn, The River's Daughter Vella Munn, Daughter of the Forest Vella Munn, Wind Warrior, about the Chumash tribe of California and their conflicts with the Spanish. Vella Munn, Spirit of the Eagle
Kerry Newcomb, The Legend of Mickey Free Kerry Newcomb, Morning Star Kerry Newcomb, Sacred is the Wind, about a Cheyenne struggling to save his people. Kerry Newcomb, Scalpdancers Kerry Newcomb, The Arrow Keeper's Song
Dan Simmons, Black Hills (2010), historical fantasy about a Sioux warrior who becomes inhabited by Custer's spirit when he counts coup on the dying general. Review at Bookreporter.com
Lucia St. Clair Robson, Walk in My Soul, about Sam Houston and his Cherokee wife. Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ghost Warrior: Lozen of the Apaches, about an Apache woman in New Mexico. Lucia St. Clair Robson, Light a Distant Fire, about Osceola, the leader of the Seminole Indians in Florida.
Tatjana Soli, The Removes (2018), about Libbie, the wife of General George Custer, and a teenage girl taken captive by the Cheyenne. Danielle Steel, Legacy (2010), a dual-time novel about a modern woman and her eighteenth-century Sioux ancestor who traveled to France and the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette where she married a marquis. Michael Straight, Carrington: A Novel of the West Michael Straight, A Very Small Remnant
James Alexander Thom, Panther in the Sky (1990), a biographical novel about the Shawnee warrior Tecumseh. James Alexander Thom, The Children of First Man (1995), a novel which explores the possibility that the Mandan Indians may have been descendants of the Welsh Prince Madoc who, according to legend, sailed to America in medieval times. James Alexander Thom and Dark Rain Thom, Warrior Woman: the Exceptional Life Story of Nonhelema, Shawnee Indian Woman Chief (2003), about a woman chief of the Shawnee.
Greg Tobin, Prairie: An Epic of the West (1997), about the native people of the Great Plains before and after the coming of European settlers. Margaret Verble, Cherokee America (2019), about a Cherokee woman and her five sons in the 1870s, as pressure mounts for the Cherokee to give up legal sovereignty over their internal affairs. Review William T. Vollman, The Dying Grass (2015), about General Oliver Otis Howard and the 1877 Nez Perce War. James Welch, The Heartsong of Charging Elk, a literary novel about an Oglala Sioux who travels with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. James Welch, Fools Crow, about the coming-of-age of a young man of the Blackfeet tribe. David Marion Wilkinson, Oblivion’s Altar: A Novel of Courage, about the Cherokees and the Trail of Tears. Barbara Wood, Sacred Ground (2001), about a woman of the Topaa Indians and her descendants in southern California from prehistoric times to the present.
Explorers, Trappers and Mountain Men
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Win Blevins, Beauty for Ashes, about a mountain man in the 1820s Old West; #2 in the Rendezvous series. Win Blevins, Dancing with the Golden Bear Win Blevins, Heaven is a Long Way Off, about a mountain man in the 1820s Old West; #4 in the Rendezvous series. Win Blevins, A Long and Winding Road, about a mountain man searching for two Mexican girls kidnapped by Navajo raiders: #5 in the Rendezvous series. Win Blevins, Dreams Beneath Your Feet (2008), about a mountain man faced with finding a new way of making a living in 1840, as the fur trade comes to an end; #6 in the Rendezvous series. Win Blevins, Charbonneau: Man of Two Dreams (1975), a biographical novel about the son of Sacajawea, the Shoshone woman who translated for the Lewis and Clark expedition. Win Blevins, The Misadventures of Silk and Shakespeare Win Blevins, The Snake River Win Blevins, The Yellowstone
Peter Bowen, Kelly Blue Peter Bowen, Imperial Kelly Peter Bowen, Kelly and the Three-Toed Horse
Vardis Fisher, Pemmican: A Novel of the Hudson’s Bay Company Vardis Fisher, Tale of Valor Vardis Fisher, Mountain Man, a story about an Old West mountain man that inspired the movie Jeremiah Jones. Sandra Garcia, The Journey to Horse Creek A.B. Guthrie, Jr., The Big Sky (1947), about explorers and trappers in the Old West. Brian Hall, I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company (2003), about the Lewis and Clark Expedition; 2004 Spur Award winner. Terry C. Johnston, Carry the Wind, about a young man running away from St. Louis who is taken in by a mountain man who helps him survive a winter in the Rocky Mountains. Lotus Landry, Skookum Man Frederick Manfred, Lord Grizzly (1954), about a man whose life changes after he is left for dead following an attack by a grizzly bear. Gary McCarthy, Grand Canyon Thunder Gary McCarthy, Yosemite Thunder D.M. McGowan, Partners (2008), about a loner mourning the loss of his family in a cholera epidemic who begins traveling the Canadian West with a younger man he considers a tenderfoot; self-published. Vella Munn, Daughter of the Mountain, a love story about a woman in the Donner Party who is rescued by a mountain man. Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves, about the Northern Territory and the Hudson Bay Company. Irving Stone, Immortal Wife (1944), a biographical novel about Jessie Ann Benton Fremont, the wife of explorer John C. Fremont. Irving Stone, Men to Match My Mountains (1956), about the opening of the American West.
Richard S. Wheeler, Bannack (1989), about a mountain man; #2 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, The Far Tribes (1990), about a mountain man's efforts to rescue a Massachusetts man from a hostile tribe after he sets out to study Indian ways; #3 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Yellowstone (1990), about a mountain man who leads a wagon train through the Great Plains; #4 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Bitterroot (1991), about a mountain man who agrees to guide a Quaker missionary into Montana's Bitterroot Valley; #5 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Sundance (1992), about a mountain man trying to rescue a girl lost in hostile Sioux country; #6 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Wind River (1993), about a mountain man who takes a job as a scout and translator for the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs and finds his loyalties divided; #7 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Santa Fe (1994), about a mountain man hired to guide a traveling medicine show along the Santa Fe Trail; #8 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Rendezvous Richard S. Wheeler, Dark Passage (1998), about a mountain man in 1830 who is captured by a hostile Blackfeet tribe after he loses his wife to another mountain man; #10 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Going Home Richard S. Wheeler, Downriver (2001), about a mountain man who goes to St. Louis in 1838 to find a job after he learns the beaver are dying out; #12 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, The Deliverance (2003), about a mountain man and his Crow Indian wife who agree to help a Cheyenne woman find her children, kidnapped by the Utes; #13 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, The Fire Arrow (2007), about a mountain man trying to bring his wounded Crow wife home to her people during a harsh winter; #14 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, The Canyon of Bones (2008), about a mountain man who guides an English tabloid writer through the Yellowstone and Missouri country; #15 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, Virgin River (2008), about a mountain man guiding a group of young tuberculosis patients across Utah; #16 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, North Star (2009), about an aging mountain man with two Indian wives who faces new dangers from cattlemen and corrupt Indian agents as the wilderness that was his home disappears; #17 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, The Owl Hunt (2010), about the schoolteacher son of a mountain man and a Shoshone woman who becomes caught up in government violence after one of his students has a vision of a future in which Shoshone life returns to the way it was before the coming of the white man; #18 in the Skye's West series. Richard S. Wheeler, The First Dance (2011), about the son of a mountain man and a Shoshone woman whose work as a translator for the U.S. army in 1885 threatens his marriage to a Metis woman; #19 in the Skye's West series.
James Alexander Thom, From Sea to Shining Sea (1986), about the parents and family of Merriwether Clark and Clark's experiences in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. James Alexander Thom, Sign Talker (2001), about George Drouillard, who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition as their translator for Indian tribes they met along the way. Anna Lee Waldo, Sacajawea, about the Shoshoni woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition. Norman Zollinger, Meridian Settlers Moving West
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Ivan J. Barrett, Eph Hanks: Fearless Mormon scout Amelia Bean, The Fancher Train Win Blevins, The Rock Child, set in Mormon country in 1862 and featuring a mix of historical characters like Sir Richard Francis Burton and such unlikely fictional characters as a Tibetan nun forced into prostitution in the Old West. Lana McGraw Boldt, Fionna's Will (1987), a family saga about a Virginia woman who escapes to Oregon Territory when her work with the Underground Railroad endangers her life, the two men who enter her life on the Oregon Trail, and her descendants. Maggie Brendan, No Place for a Lady (2009), about a Southern belle who visits her aunt's Colorado ranch in 1892 and falls in love with a cowboy; Christian message; #1 in the Heart of the West series. Maggie Brendan, The Jewel of His Heart (2009), about a young woman in 1890s Montana who falls in love with a sheepherder; Christian message; #2 in the Heart of the West series. Maggie Brendan, A Love of Her Own (2010), historical romance about a woman who visits her brother in an unpromising Montana mining town and falls in love with a horse trainer; Christian message; #3 in the Heart of the West series. Maggie Brendan, Deeply Devoted (2011), historical romance about a mail-order bride from Holland who marries a Wyoming man with a mother who tries to undermine their marriage; Christian message; #1 in the planned Blue Willow Brides series. Sigmund Brouwer, Pony Express Christmas Harry Castlemon, The Pony Express Rider (1898), about a Pony Express rider. Megan Chance, Bone River (2012), about a woman in Washington Territory who learns her much-older husband has kept secrets from her after she discovers a mummy in a riverbank. Kae Cheatham, Hammer Come Down: Memoirs of a Freedman Kae Cheatham, On Promised Land
Susan Cokal, Breath and Bones, about a highly sexed Danish orphan who follows her lover to America and travels through the Old West searching for him. Dane Coolidge, Riders of Deseret (1925), about a U.S. army officer assigned in 1877 to go into Mormon territory, which the Mormons believe is not subject to U.S. law, to investigate a massacre that occurred twenty years previously. Sandra Dallas, True Sisters (2012), about four women in very different family circumstances who are Mormon converts and set out on the journey from Iowa to Salt Lake City in 1856. Sandra Dallas, The Patchwork Bride (2018), about a Kansas woman who travels to the New Mexico Territory in in 1898 in order to look for a husband, and the present-day woman who tells the story to her granddaughter, a bride-to-be who is thinking of calling off her wedding. H.L. Davis, Honey in the Horn (1935), a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about settlers on the Oregon frontier in the early twentieth century. T.M. Dolan, Guns of the Pony Express David Anthony Durham, Gabriel's Story (2001), a coming-of-age story about a black teen in the 1870s who, angry about being forced to move west to Kansas with his family to become homesteaders, joins a wagon train led by a brutal outlaw. Edward S. Ellis, Alden the Pony Express Rider; or, Racing for Life Edward S. Ellis, Alden Among the Indians: Search for the Missing Pony Express Rider Jonathan Evison, West of Here (2011), about a fictional town on the Washington coast in 1890 and the present day, focusing on the residents' relationships with the land and a nearby Indian tribe. David Farland, In the Company of Angels Edna Ferber, Cimarron (1929), about a Kansas family who migrate to Oklahoma as part of the Oklahoma Land Rush.
Vardis Fisher, Dark Bridwell Vardis Fisher, Forgive Us Our Virtues Vardis Fisher, Children of God (1939), about the Mormons. Vardis Fisher, City of Illusion Vardis Fisher, The Mothers (1943), about the Donner Party.
Judith Freeman, Red Water (2002), a literary novel about the 1837 Mountain Meadows Massacre, as experienced by three of the nineteen wives of John D. Lee, the Mormon settler accused of the massacre twenty years later. Brenda Marshall, Dakota: Or What's a Heaven For Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Sand in the Wind (1990), about white homesteaders and the Cheyenne in Montana. Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Thin Moon and Cold Mist Leo V. Gordon and Richard Vetterli, Powderkeg A.B. Guthrie, Jr., The Way West (1949), about a wagon train traveling west in 1846; won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1950; sequel to The Big Sky. A.B. Guthrie, Jr., Fair Land, Fair Land (1982), about an old frontiersman turned conservationist. Anne Hawkins, To the Swift Celia Hayes, To Truckee's Trail (2007), a novel in the form of a diary about the Stephens-Townsend Party, the first to travel to California by wagon train across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, two years before the Donner Party met disaster on the same trail; self-published. Joanna Hershon, The German Bride (2008), a literary novel about a Jewish banker's daughter from Berlin who marries an unscrupulous merchant and travels to Santa Fe with him. Review at Bookreporter.com Cecelia Holland, An Ordinary Woman: A Dramatized Biography of Nancy Kelsey Stef Ann Holm, Crossings (1995), historical romance about a woman struggling to keep a general store and Pony Express station operating after her father is murdered. James D. Houston, Snow Mountain Passage (2001), about a family who traveled West with the Donner Party. MacKinlay Kantor, Spirit Lake Michael S. Katz, Shalom on the Range (2007), about a Jewish railroad detective investigating a train robbery in 1870 Colorado.
Jane Kirkpatrick, A Tendering in the Storm (2007), about a German-American woman and her husband who break away from a confining religious community to make their own way in 1850s Washington territory; Christian message; #2 in the Change and Cherish trilogy. Jane Kirkpatrick, A Mending at the Edge (2008), about a German-American woman struggling to balance her need for community and individual freedom in a confining religious community in 1850s Oregon; Christian message; #3 in the Change and Cherish trilogy. Jane Kirkpatrick, All Together in One Place (2000), about a group of women on the Oregon Trail in 1852; Christian message; #1 in the Kinship and Courage trilogy. Jane Kirkpatrick, No Eye Can See (2001), about a blind widow who settles in California after surviving tragedy on the Oregon Trail; Christian message; #2 in the Kinship and Courage trilogy. Jane Kirkpatrick, What Once We Loved (2001), about a group of women struggling to make new lives for themselves in California and Oregon after surviving tragedy on the Oregon Trail; Christian message; #3 in the Kinship and Courage trilogy.
Greg Lilly, Under a Copper Moon Phillip Margolin, Worthy Brown’s Daughter (2014), about a bereaved frontier lawyer in Oregon who represents a slave whose master has backed out of a promise to free him and his daughter, unleashing a violent moral dilemma. Norah Lofts, The Road to Revelation D.M. McGowan, Homesteader: Finding Sharon (2009), about a homesteader in the Canadian West of the 1880s who takes a stand against a cattle company while falling in love with a woman who runs a bordello; self-published.
Larry McMurtry, Sin Killer (2002), about an aristocratic English family on a misguided trip through the Old West; #1 in the Berrybender series. Larry McMurtry, The Wandering Hill (2003), about an aristocratic English family on a misguided trip through the Old West; #2 in the Berrybender series. Larry McMurtry, By Sorrow’s River (2003), about an aristocratic English family on a misguided trip through the Old West; #3 in the Berrybender series Larry McMurtry, Folly and Glory (2004), about an aristocratic English family on a misguided trip through the Old West; #4 and last in the Berrybender series
Hugh Nissenson, The Tree of Life (1985), about a minister who has lost his faith and who moves west to Ohio. Tristi Pinkston, Season of Sacrifice, about a Welsh immigrant who joins the Mormon migration to Utah; Christian message. Allison K. Pittman, With Endless Sight (2008), about a fourteen-year-old girl who loses her family on the Oregon Trail and must depend on her faith in God to sustain her through the harsh trials that follow; Christian message. Clay Reynolds, Tentmaker (2002), about a St. Louis tentmaker who travels west in the 1880s, where his wagon breaks down in the middle of nowhere and a tent community gradually grows on the site.
Conrad Richter, The Fields (1946), about a woman from a backwoods family in Ohio who marries an educated man from New England as Ohio transforms from woodland to farmland; #2 in the Awakening Land trilogy. Conrad Richter, The Town (1950), about an Ohio woman who experiences the transition of the country around her from farms into a town; #3 in the Awakening Land trilogy.
Dana Fuller Ross, Nebraska (1979), about a man leading a wagon train through Nebraska on its way to the Oregon Territory in the autumn of 1837; #2 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson. Dana Fuller Ross, Wyoming (1979), about a man leading a wagon train across the Great Plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on its way to the Oregon Territory in 1838; #3 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson. Dana Fuller Ross, Oregon! (1979), about a man who leads the first wagon train into the Oregon Territory; #4 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson. Dana Fuller Ross, Texas! Dana Fuller Ross, California! Dana Fuller Ross, Colorado! Dana Fuller Ross, Nevada! Dana Fuller Ross, Washington!
Jory Sherman, Trapper's Moon Tonya Holmes Shook, The Drifters Tonya Holmes Shook, Canady: The Lost Shantyboat Man
Annette Snyder, Sally Murphy Annette Snyder, Liberty Road Annette Snyder, Rock Creek Annette Snyder, Whiskey Shots (2007), two romantic short stories set in the Old West; self-published; available in ebook format only.
Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose (1971), a retired historian, bitter about his failed marriage, researches the story of his grandparents' hard lives and enduring marriage in late nineteenth century California; won the Pulitzer Price for fiction in 1972. Terese Svoboda, Bohemian Girl (2011), about a twelve-year-old girl whose father sells her to a Pawnee as a slave in 1861 and whose travels after she escapes bring her into contact with a peddler, a singer, a balloonist and other unusual characters of the Old West.
Jack Todd, Come Again No More (2010), about a ranching family whose fortunes are threatened by the Great Depression; #2 in the Paint Family series. Jack Todd, Rain Falls Like Mercy (2011), about a young sheriff, the married woman he falls in love with, and a murder investigation disrupted when the U.S. enters World War II after the Pearl Harbor attack; #3 in the Paint Family series.
Ralpn P. Vander Heide and Judith H. Vander Heide, Chris and Louisa Alissa York, Effigy (2008), a literary novel about a Utah Mormon's teenaged fourth wife who has unusual skill in taxidermy and begins to have distressingly violent dreams as the time of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre approaches.
Marsha Ward, Ride to Raton (2003), about a man estranged from his family who enters a marriage of convenience and undertakes a hazardous wintertime horseback trek with his bride over Raton Pass to Santa Fe; self-published; #2 in the Owen Family series. Marsha Ward, Trail of Storms (2009), about a Virginia family and their flight to the West after an attack on one of the women; self-published; #3 in the Owen Family series.
Kaki Warner, Colorado Dawn (2012), historical romance about a Scottish viscount who returns from military service to find his wife has run away to Heartbreak Creek, Colorado, and follows to try to persuade her to return with him; #2 in the Runaway Brides series. Kaki Warner, Bride of the High Country (2012), historical romance about a woman who flees from her husband after a shocking revelation at their wedding reception and ends up in Heartbreak Creek, Colorado; #3 in the Runaway Brides series.
Frank Yerby, Western California, the Gold Rush and Western Mining Towns
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Isabel Allende, Daughter of Fortune (1999), a literary novel about a pregnant Chilean woman who follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush. Review at Bookreporter.com Gwen Bristow, Jubilee Trail (1950), about a young woman from New York who marries an adventurous trader and travels to California with him in the years before the Gold Rush. Gwen Bristow, Calico Palace (1970), about the men and women who migrated to California before the Gold Rush and were already there when it began. Emma Donoghue, Frog Music (2014), about a burlesque dancer whose friend Jenny Bonnet is murdered during a heat wave and smallpox epidemic in 1876 San Francisco. Judith Greber, Mendocino Bret Harte, The Luck of Roaring Camp (1870), a collection of short stories about the California Gold Rush; contemporary fiction at the time it was written. Robin Lee Hatcher, Heart of Gold (2012), historical romance about a minister's daughter and a Wells Fargo driver who meet in Grand Coeur, Idaho, during the Civil War years; Christian message.
Cecelia Holland, Lily Nevada (1999), about a strong-willed woman who makes a new life for herself in Gilded Age San Francisco; #2 in the Railroad Schemes series. Cecelia Holland, The Bear Flag: A Novel of California (1990), about a young woman involved in California’s struggle for independence. Cecelia Holland, Pacific Street
John Jakes, California Gold (1989), about a real estate tycoon in California in the early 1900s. Catherine Lanigan, Wings of Destiny (1999), a descendant of one of San Francisco's founders unearths the story of her grandfather's greed and corruption. Louis L'Amour, The Californios (1974), about a family of Irish ranchers in Spanish California. Kristen Lynch, Silver Gary McCarthy, The Gringo Amigo Ralph Milliken, California Dons Elizabeth Buechner Morris, Bitter Passage Sam Sackett, Sweet Betsy from Pike Christina Schwarz, The Edge of the Earth (2013), about a woman who becomes a lighthouse keeper with her husband on California's Big Sur coast in 1898. Robert J. Seidman, Moments Captured (2012), about the pioneering San Francisco photographer Edward Muybridge and his romance with the uninhibited dancer Holly Hughes. Robert Lewis Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1959), a coming-of-age story about a Scottish boy's journey by wagon train to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Lawrence Thornton, Ghost Woman, about a Native American woman converted to Catholicism who settles in nineteenth century Santa Barbara. Naida West, Eye of the Bear (2001), about California before the Gold Rush.
Richard S. Wheeler, The Richest Hill on Earth (2011), about the rivalry of the "copper kings" who amassed fortunes from copper mining in Butte, Montana, and the labor unrest it generated. Review Richard S. Wheeler, Anything Goes (2015), about a vaudeville troupe performing in the remote mining towns of Montana and struggling to attract audiences until a mysterious young woman with a beautiful voice joins them.
Stewart E. White, The Gray Dawn (1915), about four men who form a partnership during the Gold Rush; #2 in the California trilogy. Stewart E. White, The Rose Dawn (1920), about four men who form a partnership during the Gold Rush; #3 in the California trilogy.
Frank Yerby, Devilseed The Southwest, Texas and the Texas Revolution
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James Lee Burke, Two for Texas (1982), about two escaped convicts who go to Texas in a bid to stay free by fighting in the Texas Revolution. Will Camp, Blood of Texas (1996), about a Mexican living in San Antonio who joins Sam Houston's army to fight for independence; Will Camp is a pen name of Preston Lewis; 1996 Spur Award winner. Willa Cather, Death Comes For the Archbishop (1927), about two priests trying to establish Roman Catholicism in the New Mexico Territory. Henry Chappell, Silent We Stood (2013), about a secret band of abolitionists after an 1860 fire that burned Dallas, when three slaves were accused of arson and hanged without a trial. Colleen Coble, Blue Moon Promise (2012), historical romance about a young woman who marries a man by proxy and goes to live with him in Wichita, Texas, in the nineteenth century; Christian message. Elizabeth Crook, Promised Lands (1994), about the experiences of two families, one American and one Mexican, in the Texas Revolution. Elizabeth Crook, The Raven's Bride (1991), about Eliza Allen, the wife who left Sam Houston only 11 weeks after their wedding. Elizabeth Crook, The Night Journal (2006), about a contemporary woman who goes to New Mexico to visit the site of her great-grandparents' home, and discovers a secret that turns the legendary history of her family upside down; 2007 Spur Award winner. Review at Bookreporter.com Randy Lee Eickhoff, Bowie (1998), about Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo. Jeff Guinn, Glorious (2014), about a man who flees tragedy in St. Louis and moves West to the Arizona Territory. Stephen Harrigan, The Gates of the Alamo (2000), about the siege and fall of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution; 2001 Spur Award winner.
Celia Hayes, Adelsverein: The Sowing (2009), about a family of German emigrants in the Texas Hill Country who remain loyal to the Union during the Civil War; #2 in the Adelsverein trilogy; self-published. Celia Hayes, Adelsverein: The Harvesting (2009), about a family of German emigrants in the Texas Hill Country struggling to rebuild their lives after the Civil War; #3 in the Adelsverein trilogy; self-published.
Elmer Kelton, After the Bugles (1967), about two young men who must confront how much they have lost after fighting for Texas independence, one because his home has been destroyed, the other because he is despised for being a Mexican; sequel to Massacre at Goliad; available in a single volume with Massacre at Goliad as Texas Sunrise. Elmer Kelton, The Buckskin Line (1999), about a young man who joins the Texas Rangers in 1861 after his adoptive father is murdered; #1 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Badger Boy (2001), about a young man who hopes to return to farming after the Texas Rangers are disbanded, but discovers the girl he left behind has married another; #2 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Way of the Coyote (2001), about a former Texas Ranger struggling to survive as a rancher in the difficult period after the Civil War; #3 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Ranger's Trail (2002), about a former Texas Ranger who sets out for revenge in 1874 after his fiancée is murdered; #4 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Texas Vendetta (2004), about a Texas Ranger whose mission to deliver a prisoner is complicated by a violent feud between two families; #5 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Jericho's Road (2004), about a Texas Ranger on the Texas-Mexico border whose assignment lands him in the middle of a feud between two powerful ranchers on opposite sides of the Rio Grande; #6 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Ranger's Law (2006), an omnibus edition of Ranger's Trail, Texas Vendetta and Jericho's Road, #4, 5 and 6 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Hard Trail to Follow (2008), about a former Texas Ranger who leaves his fiancée to track the man he believes killed his friend, a sheriff; #7 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Other Men's Horses (2009), about a Texas Ranger who goes on the trail of an outlaw admired by the public for having killed a man who was widely hated; #8 in the Texas Rangers series. Elmer Kelton, Sons of Texas (1989), about a young man seeking revenge for his father's murder in Mexican Texas; #1 in the Sons of Texas trilogy. Elmer Kelton, The Raiders (1989), about conflicts between American settlers and Mexicans in Texas before the Revolution; #2 in the Sons of Texas trilogy. Elmer Kelton, The Rebels (1990), about the Texas Revolution; #3 in the Sons of Texas trilogy. Elmer Kelton, The Way of the Coyote (2001), about two former captives of the Comanche who return to Texas after the Civil War, to find themselves battling outlaws, Indians and the Ku Klux Klan; 2002 Spur Award winner. Elmer Kelton, Many a River (2008), about two boys whose parents are killed by Comanches while the family is migrating through West Texas, one boy taken captive and sold to a Comanchero trader, the other rescued by militia men and raised by homesteaders.
Al and JoAnna Lacy, A Line in the Sand (2007), a family saga about a young man who migrates to Texas with his family in 1835 and joins Jim Bowie in the fight for Texas independence; Christian message; #1 in the Kane Legacy trilogy. Al and JoAnna Lacy, Web of Destiny (2008), a family saga about three brothers who volunteer to fight in a war against Mexico; Christian message; #2 in the Kane Legacy trilogy. Al and JoAnna Lacy, High is the Eagle (2008), a family saga about brothers fighting in a war against Mexico; Christian message; #3 in the Kane Legacy trilogy. Joe R. Lansdale, Deadman’s Road (2013), a collection of supernatural horror stories about an alcoholic preacher who encounters zombies, werewolves, etc., in Texas after the Civil War. Tom Lea, Wonderful Country (1952), about life on the violent Texas-Mexico border during the late nineteenth century. Jeff Long, Empire of Bones (1993), about Sam Houston and the Texas Revolution; 1993 Spur Award Winner. Philipp Meyer, The Son (2013), about a man who grows up among the Comanches who killed his parents, and the son, grandson and great-granddaughter affected by his ruthless climb to wealth as a Texas rancher. Review James Michener, The Eagle and the Raven (1990), about Santa Anna and Sam Houston. Suzanne Morris, Galveston (1976), about three women in Galveston, Texas. Kerry Newcomb, The Red Ripper (1999), about a man's quest for vengeance after his brother is murdered following a shipwreck off the coast of Mexico, which leads him to heroic deeds in the Texas Revolution. Sandra Ramos O'Briant, The Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood (2012), about two young sisters in Santa Fe on the eve of the U.S.-Mexican War, one of whom is forced to marry an older man after her sister flees to Texas to escape the marriage. Tracie Peterson, Taming the Wind (2012), historical romance about a young widow in Texas and the man who once saved her life; Christian message. Conrad Richter, Tacey Cromwell (1942), about a former prostitute and her common-law husband who lose their children to a "respectable" family in an Arizona mining community. Conrad Richter, The Lady (1957), about a woman in nineteenth-century New Mexico during the period of hostility between cattlemen and sheep herders. Lucia St. Clair Robson, Fearless (1995), about Sarah Bowman, who joined the U.S. Army as a laundress during the 1846 war with Mexico and performed heroically under fire. James W. Russell, Escape from Texas (2012), about a slave during the Texas War of Independence. Irene Sandell, River of the Arms of God (2008), about a present-day Texas woman who marries a rancher to escape her father's control, but only finds a new sort of trap, and a nineteenth-century woman who lived in the same area along the Butterfield Stage route. Anna Small, Tame the Wild Wind (2010), historical romance about a city girl who travels to New Mexico Territory in 1868 to claim her father's ranch, and discovers that a stranger already owns it. Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson, "The Texas Wife" (2014), a short story about a German immigrant to Texas in the mid-1800s. Read it at Fabula Argentea. Janice Woods Windle, True Women (1993), a family saga set in Guadalupe County, Texas, from pioneer times through the Civil War and into the twentieth century. Janice Woods Windle, Hill Country (1998), about a woman in the Texas Hill Country; sequel to True Women. Don Worcester, Gone to Texas (1993), about a 17-year-old boy who leaves Tennessee in 1800 to hunt mustangs in Texas and is captured by Spanish soldiers. Norman Zollinger, Riders to Cibola (1978), about a Mexican orphan who crosses the Rio Grande at the beginning of the twentieth century to work on a New Mexico ranch; 1978 Spur Award winner. Norman Zollinger, Corey Lane (1981), about a New Mexico sheriff and a reporter during a time of conflict with the Apaches. Norman Zollinger, Rage in Chupadera (1991), about the son of a New Mexico sheriff who finds that, twenty years later, conflicts with the Apaches are still simmering; sequel to Corey Lane.
Old West Mysteries
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Vicki Delany, Gold Fever (2010), about a dance hall owner in 1898 whose twelve-year-old son saves a native woman from suicide, thereby giving his mother's worst enemy an opportunity to destroy her business;" #2 in the Klondike mystery series. Vicki Delany, Gold Mountain (2012), about a woman who sets out for the Klondike Territory in 1897 with her eleven-year-old son but is kidnapped by a gangster with a map to "Gold Mountain;" #3 in the Klondike mystery series.
Steve Hockensmith, On the Wrong Track (2007), about a pair of cowpokes who accept jobs as railroad guards in order to take a rest from riding horses and exercise the detective skills they picked up from reading Sherlock Holmes stories; #3 in the Holmes on the Range mystery series. Steve Hockensmith, The Black Dove (2008), about a pair of cowpokes who land in trouble when they try to become professional detectives in 1893 San Francisco; #3 in the Holmes on the Range mystery series. Steve Hockensmith, The Crack in the Lens (2009), about a pair of former cowpokes who investigate a mystery in the Texas Hill Country in 1893; #4 in the Holmes on the Range mystery series. Steve Hockensmith, World's Greatest Sleuth! (2011), about a pair of former cowpokes who travel to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and compete for the title of World's Greatest Sleuth; #5 in the Holmes on the Range mystery series. Steve Hockensmith, The Double-A Western Detective Agency (2018), about a pair of former cowpokes who set up a detective agency with a cantankerous partner and his interfering daughter; #6 in the Holmes on the Range mystery series.
Erika Mailman, Woman of Ill Fame (2007), about a prostitute in Gold Rush California who investigates a series of murders. Review at the San Francisco Bay Guardian A.L. McWilliams, Eye of the Cat
Mardi Oakley Medawar, Witch of the Palo Duro Mardi Oakley Medawar, Murder at Medicine Lodge Mardi Oakley Medawar, The Ft. Larned Incident
Ann Parker, Iron Ties (2006), about a woman saloon co-owner in a Colorado silver mining town who investigates after a photographer friend witnesses a shooting on the line of the railroad being built to the town; #2 in the Silver Rush mystery series. Ann Parker, Leaden Skies (2009), about a woman saloon co-owner in a Colorado silver mining town who investigates after former President Grant's 1880 visit to the town sparks a crime wave; #3 in the Silver Rush mystery series. Ann Parker, Mercury’s Rise (2011), about a woman saloon co-owner who investigates the death of an East Coast businessman during a stagecoach journey; #4 in the Silver Rush mystery series.
Shirley Tallman, The Russian Hill Murders (2005), about a woman lawyer in San Francisco who thinks a wealthy entrepreneur's wife did not die of natural causes; #2 in the Sarah Woolson mystery series. Shirley Tallman, The Cliff House Strangler (2007), about a woman lawyer in San Francisco who encounters a dead body when she attends a seance; #3 in the Sarah Woolson mystery series. Shirley Tallman, Scandal on Rincon Hill Shirley Tallman, Death on Telegraph Hill (2012), about a woman lawyer whose search for the person who shot and wounded her brother leads to the discovery of a murder case; #5 in the Sarah Woolson mystery series.
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, a traditional Western; 1969 Spur Award winner.
, about a man seeking vengeance on the outlaw who killed his wife; 1970 Spur Award winner.
(1959), about a feud between cattlemen and sheepherders in Arizona.
(1967), about the “Lincoln County War” between some ranchers and a the owners of a general store in New Mexico; Billy the Kid appears as a minor character.
(2012), about an aging gunfighter who joins the hunt for a mountain lion terrorizing the Yellowstone National Park area in 1884; self-published.
, about a white con man and his travels with a black ex-slave with more education than he pretends to have; Christian message; #1 in the Mysterious Ways series.
, about a faithful Christian man searching for his outlaw twin brother in the Oklahoma territory; Christian message; #2 in the Mysterious Ways series.
, about a young rancher who must switch from cattle to sheep after his father dies, arousing violent opposition from the neighboring cattlemen; Christian message; #3 in the Mysterious Ways series.
(1976; also titled 
, sequel to The Outlaw Josey Wales.
(2009), explicit historical romance about a submissive English widow and a Wyoming sheriff. 
(1972), about an ex-convict who kidnaps a spirited woman running away from her husband in Wyoming.
(2005), about a retired undertaker and his wife at the turn of the twentieth century who recall their lives traveling about the West when he is asked to make a suicide's corpse look presentable; 2006 Spur Award winner.
(1998), about Pat Garrett (the man who killed Billy the Kid) and an ancient Spanish alchemist; 1999 Spur Award winner.
(1978), about the last buffalo hunter in the Old West.
(1991), about a search for Confederate gold in the Black Hills of Dakota.
(1988), about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
(1985), about an Iowa farm boy who becomes a gunfighter in the West.
(1984), about Buffalo Bill Cody.
(1983), about an aging hero who puts together a posse for one last manhunt.
(1981), about two men hunting a wolf.
(1981), about Wild Bill Hickok.
(1996), about a lawman's quest to stop a scalphunter from terrorizing Montana Indians; #1 in the Page Murdock series.
(1984), about a lawman's quest to stop a band of outlaws who lynch peace officers; #4 in the Page Murdock series.
(2010), about a man whose failing stagecoach business has a fateful encounter with a band of outlaws; self-published.
(2010), about a former stagecoach operator whose new life as a rancher is threatened by men bent on revenge; sequel to A Promising Man; self-published.
(1994), historical romance about two con artists, a woman posing as a nun and a man pretending to be blind, who decide to team up after meeting on a stagecoach.
, about the young Theodore Roosevelt's efforts to operate a ranch in the Dakota badlands in the 1880s.
, about a sheriff and his deputy pursuing a killer across the Dakota Territory; 1993 Spur Award winner.
(2013), a Western novel which imagines Mark Twain's characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as grown men, Huck a lawman and Tom a grieving widower; self-published.
(1994), about a rancher who tries to start over after the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874; sequel to Slaughter; 1994 Spur Award winner.
(2012), about a young man who served as an aging U.S. Marshal's deputy and in 1883, after envying his mentor's frontier experiences, is faced with a violent challenge.
, about Calamity Jane.
(2012), about cowmen in 1887 Colorado, a gang of thieves, and the posse that's after them.
, about gunfighters in 1927 Colorado.
, about a Texan’s quest for vengeance after escaping from a Mexican prison; #1 in the Texas Anthem series.
, about a Texan’s quest for vengeance; #2 in the Texas Anthem series.
, about a teenaged bounty hunter in Texas; #3 in the Texas Anthem series.
, about a group of people trying to survive after a battle with the Cheyenne; #4 in the Texas Anthem series.
, about a Texan in the Pacific Northwest; #5 in the Texas Anthem series.
(1980), about a young gunslinger who goes West after the Civil War and makes his living racing horses. 
(2012), about a wrongly accused Civil War veteran hunted across the Missouri River Breaks in hostile Sioux territory by an obsessed vigilante.
(1975), a gunfighter confronts Death personified in 1901 El Paso.
(1973), a comic novel about a small-time criminal who, after fleeing New York, comes up with a scheme to rob the U.S. mint in San Francisco.
, historical romance about a young woman who moves her family to Texas after their parents die and struggles to make a living ranching; 1990 Spur Award winner.
(1943), about an eighteenth century frontiersman kidnapped as a boy by the Shawnees;#1 in the Disinherited series.
(1944), about an eighteenth century frontiersman kidnapped as a boy by the Shawnees; #2 in the Disinherited series. 
(1948), about an eighteenth century frontiersman kidnapped as a boy by the Shawnees; #3 in the Disinherited series.
(1948), an omnibus edition containing all three novels in the Disinherited series.
, about the return of the Cheyenne from their reservation lands to their homeland on the Powder River, with the U.S. Army in pursuit.
, about Red Cloud’s War; prequel to A Road We Do Not Know.
, about a buffalo hunter in prehistoric North America who has a magical dream of a horse; #1 in the Horse Catchers trilogy.
, about the descendants of the legendary "Horse Bringers" at the time Europeans settled in North America; #2 in the Horse Catchers trilogy.
, about a Native American woman who raises an orphaned baby as her own child; #3 in the Horse Catchers trilogy. 
, about the Cherokee before the coming of Europeans to the American continent; #1 in the Real People series; first three novels in the series also available 
.
, about the Cherokee before the coming of Europeans to the American continent; #2 in the Real People series; first three novels in the series also available 
, about Sequoyah, the Cherokee leader who fought at the side of Andrew Jackson and developed a system for writing the Cherokee language; #3 in the Real People series; first three novels in the series also available 
, a young Cherokee travels into Seneca country to avenge the death of his brother; #7 in the Real People series. 
, about a Cherokee woman with part-Spanish blood who becomes a warrior; #8 in the Real People series.
, about a young Cherokee man exiled from his people after he accidentally kills a friend; #9 in the Real People series.
, about the great Cherokee war chief Dragging Canoe; #10 in the Real People series.
(2001), about a Cherokee adventurer of the 1800s; #11 in the Real People series.
, about the famous Apache warrior.
, about a Cherokee veteran of the Civil War who turns outlaw.
, about a half-Cherokee Texas rancher on the trail of the men who killed his partner.
, about a Cherokee warrior whose Osage wife is murdered by her own people.
, about conflicts between the Cherokee and white settlers drawn to a place known as Sacred Hill.
, about a Cherokee shaman fighting a curse that has brought him into conflict with U.S. marshals.
(1988), about a Cherokee sheriff who takes it personally when one of his prisoners is murdered in the jail.
(1989), about a gunfighter who sets out to avenge the murder of an honest man; sequel to Killing Time.
(1989), about a hired killer on the trail of some cattle rustlers.
, about a boy who becomes an outlaw when he kills a man for shooting his dog; #1 in the Kid Parmlee series.
, Kid Parmlee is condemned to hang for a crime he didn't commit; #2 in the Kid Parmlee series.
, Kid Parmlee joins up with some lawmen hunting criminals; #3 in the Kid Parmlee series.
(2000), a humorous novel about a marshal in a small Western town who enjoys trouble too much for his own good; #2 in the Barjack series.
(2001), a humorous novel about a marshal in a small Western town and the gunfighter who rides into town to challenge him; #3 in the Barjack series
, about a reluctant, part-Cherokee Confederate soldier and a Union prisoner of war who become unlikely allies after a sadistic officer forces them to fight each other to entertain his men.
, about a conflict over gold; sequel to Strange Company.
(1990), a Harvard-educated Cherokee goes on the trail of a killer; #1 in the Rider series.
(1994), a Harvard-educated Cherokee sheriff tangles with bootleggers; #2 in the Rider series.
(1995), a Harvard-educated Cherokee sheriff investigates the murder of a schoolteacher; #3 in the Rider series.
, inspired by the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, a white woman raised by Indians.
, about a captive white woman’s life among the Kiowa.
, about two Kiowa men searching for horses taken by white horse thieves.
, historical romance set in Texas about a woman rancher and a white man who was raised by Comanches.
, historical romance about a white woman raised by Comanches and the Texas Ranger determined to "rescue" her.
(1979), about the Lakota/Dakota Indians before the coming of European settlers.
(1959), about an army officer on frontier duty in Arizona during the 1880s.
(2009 as an audio book; 2011 as a self-published paperback), about a Hualapai boy from the Grand Canyon's South Rim who is forced into a Indian school in 1902.
, about Florida's Seminole Indians and their fight to remain on their ancestral lands.
, about a Cheyenne tribe's struggle to survive after a fire destroys half their village.
(1993), historical romance about an Indian woman and a white loner on the Oregon frontier.
, about a conflict between two tribes in the Pacific Northwest after the coming of white settlers.
(1996), about a Modoc woman who falls in love with a maverick Army officer on the California-Oregon border.
(2014), about a fourteen-year-old boy who travels West in 1867 and is given two eagle talons in thanks when he saves a Cheyenne boy's life.
, about an Apache who unwittingly betrays his people.
, about a veteran of the Civil War and his quest for vengeance after his Cheyenne wife is murdered.
, about a Blackfeet shaman and a sea captain in the Pacific Northwest.
, about a Cheyenne who leaves his people to adopt a white way of life at the beginning of the 20th century.
(1959), about the Fetterman Massacre in 1866 Wyoming, in which a party of U.S. soldiers disobeying direct orders were ambushed by a group of Sioux.
, about the Sand Creek Massacre.
(2008), about a young Chumash Indian woman who is made a captive after she begs protection at a Franciscan mission.
, about a mountain man in the 1820s Old West; #3 in the Rendezvous series.
, a humorous novel about a young trapper and his mentor, who used to be a Shakespearean actor.
, about a mountain man in the Old West.
, about a mountain man in the Old West.
(1987), a humorous novel about scout Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly and his adventures after being hired as a guide for a group of Englishmen; #1 in the Yellowstone Kelly series.
(1991), a humorous novel about scout Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly; #2 in the Yellowstone Kelly series.
(1992), a humorous novel about scout Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly; #3 in the Yellowstone Kelly series.
(2001), a humorous novel about scout Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly; #4 in the Yellowstone Kelly series.
(1956), about a young mountain man and a white girl raised by Indians.
(1958), about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
(2012), about the daughter of a trapper, who must travel from Oregon to a rendezvous in Wyoming to find a husband after her father dies; self-published.
(2011; originally published 1996 as Grand Canyon), about William Dunn, who leaves the doomed Powell Expedition of 1869 and tries to makes his way out of the Grand Canyon.
(2011; originally published 1995 as Yosemite), about the Yosemite area during the nineteenth century before it became a National Park.
(1997), a prequel about Skye's 1826 transformation from a Royal Navy deserter to a mountain man; #9 in the Skye's West series.
(2000), about a mountain man who has an opportunity in 1832 to clear his name and return to his former home in England; #11 in the Skye's West series.
, about Daniel Boone.
(1997), about frontier explorers Kit Carson and John Charles Frémont.
(1988), about the first woman doctor in Nebraska; 1988 Spur Award winner.
(1990), a biographical novel about a Mormon pioneer who traveled west with Brigham Young but left the main group to go on to California with the Mormon Battalion of the U.S. Army, and later served as a Pony Express rider.
(1957), about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the killing of the settlers in a wagon train traveling through southern Utah.
(2000), a novella about a Chicago family that has recently settled on the frontier, and the Christmas Eve encounter of the father and son with a Pony Express rider in the midst of a blizzard.
(2012), about a slave who travels west with his master in 1836 after his master's plantation is destroyed during the Creek Indian War; self-published.
(2012), about a free black man, his younger siblings, and his Seminole wife who travel west from the Everglades in the 1840s after the Second Seminole War; self-published. 
(1995), a Western about a Pony Express rider attracted to his boss's Indian girlfriend.
(1909), a "dime novel" adventure story about a Pony Express rider.
(1909), a "dime novel" adventure story about a Pony Express rider; sequel to Alden the Pony Express Rider.
(2009), about the Willie Handcart Company of 1856, a group of Mormons who traveled from Liverpool, England, to Salt Lake City, Utah, enduring a deadly Wyoming blizzard on their way.
(1927), about a struggling farmer and his wife in Idaho.
(1930, also titled 
, a sequel to Toilers of the Hills.
(1938)
(1941), about an ambitious woman in Virginia City, Nevada, during the silver mining era of the 1860s.
(2010), about women in the Dakota Territory in the late nineteenth century.
(1995), about a woman trying to work a gold mining claim in Colorado after the Civil War.
, about an 1857 U.S. military expedition against the Mormons in Utah Territory.
(1949), about the Pony Express.
(1999), about a pioneer woman who makes the overland journey to California.
(1960), about a community of Iowa settlers unprepared for a Wahpekute Indian attack that is about to descend on them
(2007), about a mail-order bride in the Arizona Territory copper-mining town of Jerome in 1894.
(1941; also titled 
), about the Donner Party.
(1980), about a group of Oregon Trail pioneers who travel to Texas and fight in the Texas Revolution and the Mexican War as they strive to bring their state into the Union; #5 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pseudonym used by Noel B. Gerson.
(1980), about a group of California settlers and the challenges they face during the 1848 Gold Rush; #6 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pseudonym used by Noel B. Gerson.
(1981), about a group of Colorado settlers during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush which, beginning in 1858, brings 100,000 new settlers to Colorado; #7 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pseudonym used by Noel B. Gerson.
(1982), about a Union general enlisted to guard a shipment of silver from Nevada's Comstock Lode to protect it from Confederate troops and their British allies; #8 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pseudonym used by Noel B. Gerson.
(1982), about a Civil War veteran who travels to the Washington Territory where he will help to survey the route for the northern transcontinental railroad; #9 in the Wagons West series; Dana Fuller Ross is a pseudonym of Noel B. Gerson.
(1991), about a young married couple who migrate west to Kentucky; 1991 Spur Award winner; #1 in the Buckskinners series.
(1994), about a man and his son struggling to make a living as trappers; #2 in the Buckskinners series.
(2004), a fictionalized biography of one of the author's ancestors, one of the Melungeon Shantyboat People, who traveled west from Kentucky and was involved in the Trail of Tears, the Civil War and Texas cattle drives; Christian message; self-published.
(2009), sequel to The Drifters; Christian message; self-published.
(2005), historical romance about young people from two families in conflict as both move west as part of the Oklahoma Free Land Race; self-published.
(2005), historical romance about a New York orphan sent west by train and adopted by a preacher; self-published.
(2005), historical romance about a heartbroken young woman and the owner of a saloon and brothel.
(2006), historical romance about a young woman who goes to live with her father after her mother is killed in a barroom brawl; self-published.
(2012), about a woman in the 1960s and her Mormon ancestors from the nineteenth-century into her own time; self-published.
(1981), about a Civil War veteran in Kansas during its transition to statehood.
(2011), about a young California woman and an English agent who fall in love despite their conflicting loyalties in Monterey, California, on the eve of the U.S-Mexican War.
(1987), a family saga about a Russian immigrant and his Native American wife in California.
(1991), about an escaped slave who gains influence in Gold Rush San Francisco.
(2014), about a schoolteacher who also works as a news reporter in Silver City, Idaho, as tensions rise between two mining companies on the eve of the "Owyhee War."
(1991), about the violent times after the Gold Rush.
(1967), about California during the mission days when it was part of Mexico.
(2011), about an immigrant from Prussia who accompanies her husband to California in 1848, bringing their children, when he joins the rush for gold; self-published.
(2009), about a pregnant eighteen-year-old who travels to California during the Gold Rush with her lover, Ike; self-published.
(1955), about a man who leaves his family's ruined plantation to join the California gold rush in 1849.
(1984), about a San Francisco prostitute who becomes wealthy during the struggle between Mexicanos and Americans for control of California during the Gold Rush era.
(2015), about three teens with aspirations to be newspaper reporters who stumble across a body in a cave near Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1890s.
(2000), a mystery novel about an Old West gunman framed for a murder he did not commit.
(1997), about a Kiowa healer in the late 1860s who investigates a murder while his tribe is at its winter grounds in the Palo Duro Canyon in northwestern Texas; #2 in the Tay-Bodal mystery series.
(1999), about a Kiowa healer who must find the real killer after the Kiowa representative at a peace conference in Medicine Lodge, Oklahoma, is accused of murdering a bugler with the U.S. Army; #3 in the Tay-Bodal mystery series.
(2000), about a Kiowa healer who investigates a murder that threatens to cause war among the Kiowa; #4 in the Tay-Bodal mystery series.
(2010), about a woman lawyer in San Francisco trying to solve a murder case with connections to high-end brothels, an Anglican church, and Darwin's theory of evolution; #4 in the Sarah Woolson mystery series.