Showing results by narrator "Maynard Villers" in All Categories

Haunted by the blood and bitterness of the Civil War, Houston Ballou escaped from Tennessee on the proud stallion High Fire, followed by his brother, Ruff; his sister, Dixie; and the last four mares from the Ballou farm, one of them heavy with foal. Threatened with extreme danger from either army, they head west to start a new life. Adding to their peril are deserters that stalk the roads. These men would kill for a few coins, more so for valuable horseflesh.

On their way to Colorado, Ruff and Dixie Ballou drive their horses through New Mexico. Their intention to quietly drive the horses on through goes well until they find themselves inadvertently involved in a shootout with four outlaws who robbed the banks of a small town in New Mexico. An edgy sheriff and angry townspeople get the Ballou’s involved in a situation they would be more happy to do without. Even more so when they are arrested by the sheriff as robbery suspects.

Creed was willing to risk his life by going home to the girl and the land he loved. Texada and Texas. Both represented his future and as long as he could breathe he would determine his own destiny. But the road home lay through Victoria County, a place that many considered to be lawless and wild even before the War. He knew he was inviting trouble, but he was in a hurry. Riding into the town of Victoria, Creed finds himself caught in a standoff between the angry townsfolk and the company of Union soldiers sent to occupy the town.

Golden Hawk is in a race against time to stop a foul fur trader named Bannister, who captured a beautiful Quaker woman worth her weight in gold. Bannister is headed across the Rockies to San Francisco and the white slave market. Hawk and his Nez Perce ally, Tames Horses, must make it through the mountains in time to stop the sale...and the bloodthirsty braves that Bannister armed and egged on… and a death trap hair-triggered to kill…

Mando Killion's world was shattered by Santa Anna's brutal invasion of Texas. Scion of a wealthy ranching dynasty, he saw his father die at the Alamo, his mother and brothers murdered, and his beautiful sister taken hostage by a debauched Mexican General. Mando came of age during the most violent days of Texas history, as a hearty band of patriots led by Sam Houston fought a bloody revolution for freedom from tyranny.

Haunting, majestic, and powerful, the Columbia River flows down from the rugged Rockies, through the deep, forbidden forests, and across the open plain. Along its banks, bold, strong men of ambition and enterprise sought their fortune. It was a time and a place where the fur trade could make you wealthy...or get you killed. Into this land of adventure and treachery came Jared Flynn, a man running from his tragic past.

When the Civil War ended, Confederate Captain Clete Slater was looking forward to going home to his family and enjoying a peaceful life on his family's plantation in Texas. He was greeted by the Union Army and Carpetbaggers taking over everything. When he resisted and fought for his home, they framed him and declared him an outlaw, forcing him to hit the trail. Now he has a crooked federal marshal with an itchy trigger finger dogging his trail.

Through the rolling grasslands of Kansas runs the Smoky Hill River, a rich source of opportunity for those bold enough to risk the dream-killing territory. For Gabe, mountain-man and scout, the river means freedom and a chance to map unexplored territory with the Great Pathfinder, John Charles Fremont. For Lem, an Illinois farm boy in pursuit of gold, it is a cruel foe who robs him of his family and his youth. For Jesse, a young Union corporal, this is the country that took his father and uncle and where he must fight warring Indians.

Marty Keller, ex-Texas Ranger turned bounty hunter, is on the vengeance trail to find the three men who murdered his family. After being wounded, he is cared for by the widow of a murdered sheriff and she convinces him to search for the sheriff's killer as well. She asks a friend of the sheriff, an Indian, to help. The two are slowed by many battles along the way but eventually track the killers across the Southwest into Mexico. Side-tracked again, Marty gets involved in defending a large ranchero from Mexican bandits.

A mocking Comanche warrior butchered the sable-haired woman in front of Golden Hawk's eyes; then confirmed that his beautiful, golden haired sister Annabelle was still the captive of a brutal Blackfoot chief. Golden Hawk's one man war flamed with fresh fury. No man fought the Indians as fiercely, for he had a terrible blood-score to settle. Along with a wanderer named Bill Williams and a pack of hard-as-nails mountain men, Golden Hawk was ready for action against the most murderous tribes in the West.

It started when a gravely injured trapper named Pete Foxwell stumbled into Hawk's cabin. Before he died, he showed Hawk a bagful of gold coins, and told him about a hidden hoard of them. But he didn't say where. Hawk should have buried those coins with Pete's corpse, but instead he spent them on supplies and let slip the story of the treasure waiting to be found. Suddenly Hawk found himself the most wanted man in the West as a band of sea-going land pirates decided they would nail his hide and grab the gold....

Golden Hawk's beautiful sister Annabelle had been kidnapped by a Comanche band, and Hawk knew all too well what was being done to her. Even more maddening was his discovery that she was being passed from hand to hand as he pursued her abductors. The Comanches, the Blackfoot, and then a mammoth mountain man named Gar Trimm, all in turn took possession of her as Golden Hawk battled the cruelest odds of nature and man to free Annabelle and wreak a revenge that made death sweet...

As Hawk watched the Blackfoot warriors attack their Bannock Indian enemies, he was shocked at what he saw. The Blackfoot were attacking not in the helter-skelter Indian manner, but with an organized military precision that could make them the most powerful fighting force in the West. Then Hawk saw the reason why. Mounted on a horse beside the Blackfoot chief, Spotted Pony, was a white man with a cavalry sabre raised high in the air to order the Blackfoot charge. It was James Cantrell.

J. Harrison Bing after receiving no word from his daughter in nearly a year, went to her home in L.A. only to find she had sold the home and left without a trace. He hired a Los Angeles P. I. named William Carter to track her down and after calling from Vegas, he also disappeared. Now it is Shell Scott's turn. Assuming a simple case of finding a missing person, Shell finds out the hard way that he has bitten into an elephant.

Shell Scott, the shamus who has Sherlock whirling in his grave...the wacky knight-errant of gorgeous gals who leaves a trail of beautiful bodies behind him (not all of em dead)...the private eye who's every killer's public enemy.... This is the first book in this action-packed mystery series. The Case of the Vanishing Beauty began when one beauty vanished from sight and another died in a hail of bullets. Next on the murder list was lovely Lina....

“The strait jacket’s canvas held my arms tight. My six-two was horizontal on a stretcher and the two bruisers carried it and my 205 pounds easily down the long corridor. I was confused as modern art, and being in this stupid asylum didn’t help. I was dumped onto a bed, yelling like a fiend. A needle, a stinging sensation in my neck and it was lights out for me. I awoke with a light beaming upon my face. A blade moved upward through the beam of light. And suddenly I was wide awake, thinking: This idiot is about to stab me! Me? I’m Shell Scott private eye and I’m in a lot of trouble...”

Constanza Carmocha was unarmed - that is, she didn't have a gun. Well, she really didn't need one, either. Because she had all the weapons that have ruined men from time immemorial or better said - time immoral. One unlucky guy ended up with his throat slit because of her, and another was about to be bumped off. Shell Scott was sure to get to the bottom of this deadly dame....

"There was a fire in her eyes that was scorching me - me, who couldn't tell whether a dame wanted to kiss me or kill me! No matter how you look at it, 36-22-35 are magic numbers. They have a real message for me. I'm Shell Scott, the private eye, and I'm very good at figures. You might say I follow them very carefully. I've been following this one for several days and learned her name is Sherry. I hated to think she was mixed in murder. But somebody was planning to send me to my friendly neighborhood mortician and I had to find out who - or die trying."

"'I'm trying to get back in shape,'" she said. Man, if her shape got any better she'd be banned for just walking down the street. I'm Shell Scott, private eye, and my job was to guard her day - yeah, and night. I didn't have a chance to discuss these points with her because I saw the man walking toward us. There was only one of him but he seemed to outnumber me. He was so big I was surprised his feet didn't leave holes behind him in the concrete. "Shell Scott," he rumbled. "Shake." I hardly dared....

'The scarlet bikini which had covered a minimum of the eye-popping curves on the dead woman, lay at her feet, and my eyes focussed on her as glassily as did the dead man’s next to her. He was dead, all right. He had been shot, poisoned, stabbed, and strangled. Either somebody really had it in for him or four people had killed him. Or else it was the cleverest suicide I’d ever heard of. Me? I’m Shell Scott, private detective and I’m wondering why anybody in his right mind would commit such a complicated murder....'