Central Kansas Library System

The New York Times-bestselling Grand Master of suspense deftly displays the other side of his genius, with seven classic western tales of destiny and fatal decision . . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned.

Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America's frontier—with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen

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Phil Sundeen thinks Deputy Sheriff Kirby Frye is just a green local kid with a tin badge. And when the wealthy cattle baron's men drag two prisoners from Frye's jail and hang them from a high tree, there's nothing the untried young lawman can do about it. But Kirby's got more grit than Sundeen and his hired muscles bargained for. They can beat the boy and humiliate him, but they can't make him forget the jog he has sworn to do. The cattleman has money,...

No one breaks out of the brutal convict labor camp at Five Shadows-but Corey Bowen is ready to die trying. They framed him to put him in there, and beat him bloody and nearly dead after his last escape attempt. He'll have help this time-from a lady with murder on her mind and a debt to pay back. Because freedom isn't enough for primed dynamite like Bowen. And he won't leave the corrupt desert hell behind him until a few scores are settled...permanently....

Touching on the themes of the popular FX series Justified featuring U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, Valdez Is Coming is New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard's classic western tale of corruption, justice, and vengeance. Forced to gun down an innocent man, part-time sheriff Roberto Valdez is nearly killed and run out of town when he seeks justice for the dead man's family. But the same townsfolk who laughed at Valdez's dark skin, mocked...

In his more than three dozen books, Elmore Leonard has captured the imagination of millions of readers as few writers can. A literary icon praised by The New York Times Book Review as "the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever," he has influenced many contemporary writers and is known for both the quality and the accessibility of his writing. In this collection of new and recently published short fiction, Leonard demonstrates the superb...

When Federal Marshall Raylan Givens squares off against a known offender, he will warn the man, "If I have to pull my gun I'll shoot to kill." Except this time he finds the offender naked in a bathtub, doped up and missing his kidneys. Raylan knows there's big money in body parts, but by the time he finds out who is making the cuts, he is lying naked in a bathtub himself, Layla, the cool transplant nurse, about to go for his kidneys. It turns out...