Showing results by author "Frank Bonham" in All Categories

Something tan and cylindrical struck the roof and rolled off. The men inside didn't wait for the dynamite to blow; they lurched into the sunlight, firing as they ran. A brutal war began when two bold men left Kane's mine to work their own strike. This was the final battle.

A despised general, a crooked lawman and a cutthroat cattle buyer join up to double-cross ranchers along the Mexican border. Then, they pick on the wrong man. 

The first story, Trouble in Temescal, is set in Los Angeles in the days following the Mexican-American War, and tells the tale of two entrepreneurial mustangers, Hank Ashwood and Red Wolfe, who have driven a herd of horses from New Mexico to California for resale. The second story, King of the Defiances, is the story of Big Jim Jackson, who intends to make a fortune by logging off the best railroad-tie timber in Arizona, and his clash with former manhunter Troy Cameron, the leader of a group of small cattle ranchers who stand in Jackson's way. 

A massive swarm of grasshoppers threatens every ranch in the area. There's only one way to save everyone - set fire to one man's land. But they may have to shoot him first.

A rodeo star needs to go out on top or he'll probably die broke. But someone has slipped a killer horse into the main event.

A brutal war began when two bold men left Kane's mine to work their own strike. Then, something tan and cylindrical struck the roof and rolled off. The men inside didn't wait for the dynamite to blow; they lurched into the sunlight, firing as they ran. This was to be the final battle. 

A double dose of Western action from one of the genre's acknowledged masters. The first story, "The Rodeo Killer", is a smoldering tale of the violent intersecting conflict between New Mexico cattle ranchers, cattle buyers, and men breeding horses for the rodeo circuit. The title story, "Mission Creek", tells the fiery tale of Ruel Starrett, a man who worked against the odds his whole life to establish his own ranch. He finally gets his chance when he's offered a half interest in the Spade Ranch from a woman named Susanna Dahlhart. But she isn't all she appears. 

From manipulation and treachery among greedy cattlemen to the loneliness of a mountain-bred mustanger, this is a collection of tales from a great Western storyteller.

Here are three novellas - tales of adventure and intrigue, action and emotion - all set in the sweeping landscape of the Old West that Bonham has made his own.

"Sergeant Forson's Dirty-Shirt Army" is set in Eastern Oregon, at a forgotten outpost left behind by the regular army during the War Between the States. Fort Haney is now home to a troop of 57 men, raw recruits in the Oregon Volunteer Cavalry, who care little about fighting except among themselves, in spite of the fact that they are surrounded by hostile Snake and Cayuse Indians just waiting for opportune moments to strike at farmers, ranchers, and stagecoaches.

At West Point they told you how to set security guards, load a wagon, and feed your men. But they didn't tell you how to convince troopers with 20 years' service on their sleeves that you knew more about soldiering than they did. The ambulance drivers are waiting the order to move out, and Lieutenant Thatcher is about to find how much he does know. 

He took one step forward and smashed Ramsey to his knees. A dark train roars over a rain-soaked bridge while two men fight to the death in the rocking, rattling caboose. Mexican treasure and a kill-crazy gang wait for the winner. 

Riders are making their way through the seven deserts that mark the path between Texas and California. But they must stop in the fifth to do battle with a gunslinger, a rustler, and the Apaches.

A collection of the finest Western stories, with escaped convicts, disputed partnerships, wild mustangs and outlaw gangs all part of the action.