This is a short story by Louis L’Amour in his collection titled The Outlaws of Mesquite. This story puts a town marshal against the town when he arrests the man that is pushing dream of lost gold and missing towns. The scam was simple but Lou the town marshal had already seen and heard all about “The Lost Village Mine” and he knew Luke Feist for what he was a con artist.

This is a very short story only fifteen pages but it has some thoughts that are always present in the stories of Louis L’Amour. His characters will not be deceived, they demand loyalty, they do their duty and they do the right thing no matter the consequences.

This story seemed to me to be just the thoughts of a large and more significant story in the making. I have always enjoyed his story telling and I envision this one to be a story that never got completely told. I recommend this story as a thought provoking episode in your quest to write a western story.

This Louis L’Amour short story out of the book The Outlaws of Mesquite is a tale of the tenacity of Johnny Garrett, which was also fueled by the desire to be close to Mary Jane Gavin. His first problem was that he was unable to keep his thoughts to himself and when he shared them with Mary Jane she repeated them to Smoke the foreman of the Bar X. As this outsider tried to become the best cowhand on the ranch he was given every dirty job available. Now every rookie has to learn all the jobs but Smoke wanted to get rid of the competition.

The first major test was in the winter and he was sent out to check the fence that would prevent a drift from going off the edge of the arroyo. All the cattle would end up dead and pilled in the bottom. He saved the day but he was unable to win the foreman over. His next assignment was being the range hand that was the hand would be posted to stay out on the range. He was clued into the fact that the cattle count was short and he began to search for the cattle in his area. Rustlers were suspected and he was zeroing in on them.

If I tell too much you wont want to read this story. I think it is worth the read and you will find out that a new girl is inserted into the story. The art of telling a great story is the ability of the author to have a ring of truth and a common theme. I would recommend this story as a good read even though it does not have the compelling draw some other stories have. I would like you to judge for yourself.

This is a novel by Larry McMurtry that tells a story of the early west before it was won but shortly after Lewis and Clark traveled across the land to the Pacific Ocean. The story tells of the Berrybender a family of rich aristocrats from England who were terribly out of place on a trip up the Missouri River as the frontier was opened.

The main character is Jim Snow a young mountain man and adventurer known up and down the river as the Sin Killer to Indians and other mountain men. Tasmin Berrybender confronted him and the two strong willed individuals crash together like two stars with explosions that created the world we know. The initial meeting is close to normal but from there on the relationship and events of the journey cause the story to propel itself in a direction that only will be defined by these two head strong individuals.

This is a good adventure story and it is full of all the west can offer in the way of suspense and excitement. The setting, the Indians and with wild animals covering a love story set in the American west.  Two people from two drastically different background and upbringing generate a unique story line..

This is a book to read in the flavor of Lonesome Dove. I enjoyed the book and it kept me turning the pages. I actually purchased the book at our local branch library here in Windsor, CA. This was an exciting read I think you would enjoy an early tale on western lore.

This is a new author for me. Jeffrey Poston has given me a story that was probably more common than we were always led to believe. The story of a black western hero who has used his gun to save his own life but still takes the lives of those that challenged him.

Jason Pears has cleared his name but in the outlying hamlets and hidden corners of the west he is still known as a bad man. Arriving in Bronco, Texas he is challenged several times and survives. He sets out to be a peacekeeper but is connected by association to the element in town who is driving the homesteaders off the land. His history is known by a different name than he is using.

A young woman, who hates the person Jason is working for as she receives all of his attention and dreamtime. Everything seems to be done on the legal side of the law but it has some cracks that Jason decides to explore. Things begin to escalate as he gets a vision of the devious plan and how it is going to be played out.

The story moves along with many ups and downs. The characters are definitely western and the plot will keep you guessing. I recommend this book to serious western readers who want to continue their growth in western history and realism.

This is a story by Louis L’Amour in a collection of stories. Milt Cogar is a horse tamer and his string of broken horses is just too much temptation for Dan Spencer who is the leader of this rustler’s town. Mesquite has a few good men but they are under the belief that they are weak and unable to stand up to the bad element and its leader.

A girl admires his horses but is fearful of any contact because Dan Spencer has told everyone that she is her property and she can’t leave town or be sociable with anyone else. Milt Cogar offers to help her get away. She accepts the offer and every thing comes to a head.

This is a short read with particular points as in all westerns. I enjoyed this story and would recommend it to all western readers. I feel that Louis L’Amour is one of the best storytellers of his generation.

This is a western short story in a trio of stories from the book Rainbow Rider by Wayne D. Overholster. This story is about a gunman who is working for a large land company working out of northern New Mexico and it moves to press claims for land into southern Colorado. The main character is Rick Marvin who is having some conflicts with his conscience about railroading honest hard working people off the land that they had before the Grant Company came along.

He meets a woman on the wrong side that is against the Grant Company and it is the final straw that drives him into a headlong fight against the Company. This pits him against the company and his old partner Pete Fargo who only goes where the money is and until now the winning side.

This is a good western story with not too many side turns and is a very easy read. I will recommend this story as a different pace for the western reader.

This western story written by Les Savage Jr. was written in the late fifties and was at the time considered to far from the accepted model of western books. The Author died and his agent felt that it should not be published in the form I read it in. The agent supplied a rough draft to another author and he wrote a story that fit the stereotype western of the day called Gun Shy.

This original work breaks many rules of westerns and plows new ground through the western novel world. Today’s readers are subjected to many new and different story lines with the hero’s being from any age group, race or gender. The story begins with the murder seen by a boy who did not like guns or killing anything. He sees his father killed and his mother shot and she eventually die’s of a broken heart. The story is wound around a robbery that his uncle is spending time in prison for. Gordon’s father knows his brother is innocent but is struggling to find enough evidence to free him and that is what gets him killed and the story takes off on a run down hill. There are many twists and turns as the story shows new events and introduces more characters and possible guilty people.

I really enjoyed this story and I recommend it to the western reader who likes to branch out away from the cookie cutter mold of a lot of westerns.

This western story is written by Johnny D. Boggs a spur award – winning author. The story is set in the New Mexico Territory beginning in the fourteenth year of young Caleb Hart. He would be sent by his parents over twelve hundred miles to work for his uncle, Captain Frank Hart, on his ranch. The ranch was just about the biggest one in the Territory at the time.

Caleb Hart tells the story after thirty plus years had passed. He describes himself in the present and compares himself to how he was then. Looking at himself he is ashamed that he knew so little and called himself a green pea. His father and uncle were cowboys who rode and worked together. Caleb’s father got physically broken up and he had to leave the cowboy life because of broken bones and arthritis that completely took over his body. He assaulted Caleb with the stories of his past but Caleb took them as just yarns of a broken man with little or no truth in them.

The story is compelling and has many points of suspense which draws the reader into the intricacies of the situations created by the writer. If the reader is imbedded in western history the names and places ring the bells of famous people and places. The complexities of the simple western life give a reader the feeling that as time passes and we think we are so sophisticated yet we see and observe that the complexities of life really do not change very much as we push on into modern times.

This is an interesting western story with the constant Theme’s of western life. I would recommend the book as a western with strong values and the growth of a boy into a man. I enjoyed the book and it was a quick read.

This western by spur award winning author Wayne D. Overholser tells a story of the lives of two men who were put together through strange happenings but then fell apart with the search for there own dreams. This story highlights the thought that we sometimes do not really want what we are vigorously chasing. The story rings true to today’s world happenings in that if you do not sit back and view your own dreams with an eye of objectivity you may find yourself running down a path that gets your dreams but looses your life long humanity.

This story begins with the saving of a gunfighter’s life and ends with the death of a father saving his unrecognized son. The twists and turns in the story keeps a reader involved and pushes and pulls him threw the eighteen years the two men spent in close proximity.

I definitely enjoyed the book and the writer had me threw out the story. This western is an age-old situation where one man continues to grow but his friend is locked into a dream the will cause him to loose everything that he really did want. I recommend this book to all of you western readers.

This story written by Frederic Bean is a western tale about a cowboy who is down on his luck as he pushes through to El Paso. Dan Willis has heard that there are high-paying cowboy job in the New Mexico Territory. Arriving in Texas he is broke and near starvation. Talking to his horse he vows to take any job that he can find.

The job he finds is digging postholes for a corral on Jake Logan’s ranch. This ranch has many secrets and the possibility of even illegal happenings. Not wanting to be even close to any illegal activity Dan is considering leaving before payday. He then meets Jane Logan and is swayed into staying and helping her in the process. She wants to escape from Jake and the ranch activities.

The story twists and turns around the many things that happen to Dan. He is confronted with the knowledge that illegal thing are really happening on the ranch and he could be involved. Saving the woman will not be an easy task for a thin, hard worked, cowhand but he is going to try. His idea of doing things that are right over power the need to protect himself.

This is a good western story that pits good against evil. The characters are not complex and you do not need a legend to see where things are going. I enjoyed the story and recommend it to western reading fans. More stories about the west introduce me to the many ways similar stories can be told to achieve the good result of reader enjoyment. I feel that a true western reader will enjoy this story.