Showing results by narrator "James Jenner" in All Categories

Mavis Gallant Award-winning author Jack Todd—an American expat living in Canada—pens an epic work of historical fiction based partly on his own relatives. Spanning the Civil War to the Roaring Twenties, Sun Going Down details three generations of the Paint family as they work to find their places on the untamed American frontier.

Spur Award finalist Cameron Judd has won wide acclaim for bringing both action and authenticity to his novels set in the American frontier. In The Long Hunt, Crawford Fain is hired to find Deborah Bledsoe, who's rumored to still be alive years after being abducted by Cherokee raiders. Trouble is, Crawford is getting up in years, and his tracking ain't what it used to be. But with the help of his son Titus, Crawford just might have a fighting chance of making it across the vast, untamed wilderness and bringing Deborah home safely.

An elderly inventor, burning with manic creativity, tries to reconcile with his estranged gay son. A bereaved boy draws a thuggish classmate into a relationship of escalating guilt and violence. A genteel middle-aged woman, a longtime resident of a psychiatric hospital, becomes the confidante of a lovelorn teenaged volunteer. Told with Chekhovian restraint and compassion, and conveying both the sorrow of life and the courage with which people rise to meet it, You Are Not a Stranger Here is a triumph of storytelling.

In Crossing Fire River, Cotton introduces Lawrence “Fast Larry” Shaw, a quick-drawing gunslinger tormented by his past. Reeling from the death of his wife Rosa, Fast Larry turns to whiskey to drown his sorrows. But even with a drink in one hand, he’s still the fastest shot around. So when he becomes a target for a Mexican bounty hunter after killing two banditos, Fast Larry will have to protect himself the only way he knows how.

Richard Wheeler has amassed a considerable fan base for his popular Barnaby Skye novels. An English exile, mountain man Skye agrees to lead a wagon train of consumptives to a desert locale - and faces all manner of danger along the way.

With Holding Lies, John Larison takes us deep into a thriving subculture of the Northwest, one born of the ferns and firs, rain and hot-springs, firebombs and whitewater. He takes us even deeper into the troubles of Hank Hazelton, a 59-year-old river guide, as he struggles to reconnect with his only daughter after a 14-year estrangement. His failure as a father haunts him, along with other deep regrets, tragedies, and longings. In the days before his daughter's arrival, Hank discovers a drift boat stranded below a rapid, empty except for a long smear of blood on its seat.

Sheriff Cray Dawson's quick-draw reputation keeps most criminals away from his Texas town of Somos Santos. But it doesn't keep the motley Walker Gang away for long. Although they temporarily divert their bankrobbing plans to a neighboring town, they soon stumble upon a way to weaken him. But will a strategic kidnapping and an unexpected ally undermine Dawson's resolve to do what he must?

Still disoriented from a recent gunshot wound, Fast Larry Shaw happens across the Dexter Lowe Boys on their way to steal some weapons. Knowing he can’t take these guys on alone in his condition, Shaw contacts U.S. Marshal Crayton Dawson and Deputy Jedson Caldwell for backup.

USA Today best-selling author Ralph Cotton pens gun-blazing tales evoking the glory days of the Old West. In City of Bad Men, Lawrence “Fast Larry” Shaw wants nothing more than peace and quiet after miraculously surviving a gunshot wound to the head. But his hopes for tranquility don’t last long. A powerful businessman needs help defending his mining operation from the likes of the Cut-Jaws Gang, and he thinks Larry is just the man for the job.

The Western tradition of Ralph Cotton lives on in Fast Guns Out of Texas. After Cray Dawson sets out to stake his claim in Black’s Cut, Montana, he learns his old friend Fast Larry Shaw faked his death to escape his notoriety as a gunfighter. But as Dawson soon discovers, his own prowess with a six-shooter could come back to haunt him as well.

Fast Larry Shaw incurs a huge debt when a Mexican girl shouts a life-saving warning during a firefight. Outlaws have put the girl through hell, and now Larry is her only hope. But after offering his services, Larry gets caught in the crossfire between federales and banditos—and even his well-practiced gunhand might not offer enough protection to ensure survival.

Raiding with Morgan is an historical Civil War novel set in 1863; it focused of the invasion of Indiana and Ohio by Confederate cavalrymen commanded by General John Hunt Morgan a.k.a. the infamous Morgan's Raiders. Ty Mattson never knew his father who went off to fight in the Mexican War and never returned; and Ty's mother died giving birth to Ty. For 17 years, Ty wonders why his father never acknowledges his existence. Ty learns that his father joined Morgan's Raiders, so Ty decides to follow suit in the hope of meeting his father, which he does.

With the exception of sleep, humans spend more of their lifetimes on work than any other activity. It is central to our economy, our society, and the family. It underpins our finances and our sense of meaning in life. Given the overriding importance of work, we need to recognize a profound transformation in the nature of work that is significantly altering lives: the incoming tidal wave of shadow work. Shadow work includes all the unpaid tasks we do on behalf of businesses and organizations.

New York Times best-selling author Mary Jo Putney weaves a romantic tale into a courtroom thriller, prompting Booklist to hail, “Move over John Grisham.” High-powered corporate attorney Val Covington knows she should avoid mysterious guys like Rob Smith. But when Rob helps her in a frantic race against the clock to save a man wrongfully sent to death row, Val unearths long-buried secrets - and discovers an unexpected passion.

Norton Juster - the acclaimed author of such children’s classics as The Phantom Toll Booth and The Hello, Goodbye Window - tells the story of a really rotten ogre. Huge and ugly, the angry ogre is always hungry - and utterly merciless. As he greedily gobbles up the people in his path, he seems unstoppable. And then one day, the ogre takes a wrong turn and encounters a kind and friendly young lady who does her best to help him.

Ralph Cotton casts a long shadow as one of the finest practitioners of Western fiction to ever set pen to paper. Burnished with the unmistakable character of the Old West, Escape from Fire River showcases Cotton at the height of his form. There’s not a man alive who can outdraw Lawrence Shaw, but that doesn’t mean he’s invulnerable. Garris “The Cat” Cantro and his band of miscreants are hellbent on securing a fortune in gold.

Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men. Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority.

Cray Dawson wants to head home and put his reputation as a shootist to rest. Trouble is, his home town has changed. There's a crooked new sheriff, and with an army of vicious outlaws riding shotgun as deputies, he has the town under his thumb-until Cray decides to make the most of his bad reputation.

Lawrence "Fast Larry" Shaw was the quickest gun alive until his beloved Rosa died. Turning to the bottle for solace, he takes a job helping a widow tend her ranch. But when the Barrows Brothers Gang tears a bloody trail across his path, it's time for Fast Larry to find his steady hand and blast his way to justice.

In this thrilling tale, former hired gun Larry Shaw tries to help a prostitute determine the father of her unborn child. Of the three candidates, one stands out - the notorious William H. Bonney. And as a cattle war brews, Bonney has a proposal for Shaw: lend your iron to our side and help us blast our way to victory.