Sundown Shootout

Five unique short fiction stories of adventures in the old west. Break from today's politics and move back a hundred years during a commute or lunch. Experience a life threatening gunfight at sundown twisting in a surprising conclusion. Jim Kern turned away from Curley, then spun around saying, " Missed your chance Curley; you coulda shot me in the back!" Army Scout Jay Morris, woke up with a gun in his face hearing a screaming woman say, " You're not the man I married! Who the hell are you ?" the beginning of trouble? Then Jake's "Will you marry me?" Answer, "Of all the idiotic and lame brained people I've ever met Mister you are the worst. You don't just roll off a rock pile and propose to some girl you've never met!" And the stage hold up, " Damnit! You hard of hearin? I said, I need a woman! One of them girls in there." The Jakala story, Jeanie screamed, " Oh God! Joe look here!" and with shaking hands, a one ounce gold Ferdinand. All enjoyable reads even for me the author.

The Reaper Virus has raged across the globe, leaving over one billion people dead. After an EMP brought Earth's technological age to its knees, the superpowers have entered a race to rearm, leading to new tensions between the East and West. Tensions that those responsible for the virus hope to exploit to deadly effect. Unwillingly thrown into the fight once again, Adam and Sam find themselves in a deadly fight against evil. Against the one responsible for The Reaper. The fate of the human race on Earth is about to be decided once and for all.

How far would you go to fix the mistakes you've made and regain the trust you lost? For Jade Jessup, the answer is 2,448 miles. Once one of Chicago's significant financial advisors, Jade lost her credibility when her fiancé (and coworker) stole millions of dollars from their clients in a Ponzi scheme. Now she's agreed to help one of them--an aging 1960s Hollywood starlet named Berenice "Benny" Alderidge--seek financial restoration. Jade sets off along Route 66 with Benny and her handsome adult foster son, Bridger, who is filming a documentary retracing the 1956 trip that started the love story between Benny and her recently deceased husband, Paul. Listening to Benny recount her story draws Jade into memories of her own darker association with Route 66, when she was kidnapped as a child by a man the media labeled a monster--but she remembers only as daddy. Together, all three of these pilgrims will learn about family, forgiveness, and what it means to live free of the past. But not before Jade faces a second staggering betrayal that changes everything.

Sergeant Jack Crossman's second adventure finds him still in the heat of battle in the Crimea. Having survived a dangerous covert mission in The Devil's Own the man known to his comrades as 'Fancy Jack' now faces new horrors at the Battle of Balaclava. In the confusion of the conflict Jack witnesses the carnage during the hopeless and tragic charge of the Light Brigade when more than six hundred British cavalry troops charged Russian gun emplacements, mistakenly following orders that, as they were passed down the chain of command, had been misinterpreted. Kilworth's rousing narrative of courage on the field and his vivid descriptions of the horrifying realities of the Crimean campaign are related with verve and meticulous historical detail, in the spirit of the great military adventures.

One of the most important yet overlooked of Hollywood auteurs, Budd Boetticher was responsible for a number of classic films, including his famous 'Ranown' series of westerns starring Randolph Scott. With influential figures like Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood acknowledging Boetticher's influence, and with growing academic interest in his work, Gary D. Rhodes and Robert Singer present a vital collection of essays on the director's long career, from a range of international scholars. Looking at celebrated films like Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) and Comanche Station (1960), as well as at lesser-known works like Escape in the Fog (1945) and Behind Locked Doors (1948), this book also addresses Boetticher's influential television work on the James Garner series Maverick, and Boetticher's continuing aesthetic influence on contemporary TV classics like Breaking Bad.

In this western from Charles G. West, blood beats all—except justice… Outlaw Roy Blanton’s raised his four boys in the family business since they were half-pints—and they've gotten away with murder. That is, until U.S. Deputy Marshal Casey Dixon had hot-headed Billy, the youngest, hanged for shooting a policeman. Now the Blantons have vengeance on their minds. Old Buck Avery, Dixon’s partner, had been thinking of turning in his badge. And taking down the Blanton name sounds like a fine way to leave the law on a high note. But it's going to get bloody--because the house of Blanton isn't going to fall without a fight... “The West as it really was—savage, heroic and unforgettable.”—Ralph Compton

When a legendary old gunslinger finally meets his Maker in some godforsaken West Texas town, Stringer heads to the scene for what he thinks is a routine story. But when he gets to Comanche Woe, it turns out he's landed in the middle of a dust storm of trouble. It's open season on wanted men. A wily varmint called Buckskin Jack Blair has crowned himself marshal. And murderous vigilantes and bounty hunters are crawling out of the woodwork. When the bullets start flying, Stringer can't tell the outlaws from the lawmen, but he had better keep both eyes open and his shooting hand ready if he wants to live to tell this tale.

Known for his tenacity in pursuing lawbreakers, U.S. Marshal Frank Marlin follows a dangerous mission to quell a brewing range war on the western frontier. Hes told that Cottonwood Valley, a rich fertile land in the State of Texas, is the target of the trouble. The valleys large-ranch owners blame each other for the cattle rustling, ambush killings, and other acts of lawlessness. They threaten to wipe each other out; fury on the range seems unavoidable. During his mission, Marlin learns that a wily outlaw boss, who strikes ranches and towns from his hideouts in the badlands, perpetrates the trouble in Cottonwood Valley. When the outlaw boss hears Marlin is on his way, he offers his henchmen a large cash bounty to anyone who kills the feared marshal. Marlin must always be on the lookout for those who want him dead. Encountering life-threatening situations and suffering serious wounds, Marlin never loses sight of his intense desire to stop the killing and cattle rustling.