Books in Center Point Premier Western series

A harsh and deadly land...Rye Tyler was twelve when he saw his father cut down in an Indian raid. Taken in by a mysterious stranger with a taste for Shakespeare and an instinct for survival, Rye is schooled in the lessons of a hard country. Then tragedy forces him to live a loner's life in a wild land of canyons and buttes, and on dust-choked cattle trails.But his skill with a gun has earned Rye a bloody reputation he can't escape. Though he's become the law in a lawless town, he had hoped for a better life with the beautiful Liza Hetrick. When Liza is taken away and held in a mountain-girded outlaw fortress, Rye must face his deadliest enemy—the very man who taught Rye about manhood, friendship...and the ways of a gunman.From the Paperback edition.

True Grit, first published in 1968 and the basis for the movie by the same name starring John Wayne, tells the story of fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross. A coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash money. That's when Mattie fearlessly heads out to avenge her father's blood, convincing one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest U.S. Marshal there is, to accompany her. But their plans run into an obstacle -- namely, a Texas Ranger who is also investigating the murder, and whose idea of justice is vastly different from Mattie and Rooster's.Like Mattie herself, True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching. This is an American classic through and through.

An educated man‚ Ronan Chantry came to the western plains with nothing to lose. He carried with him his hand–wrought rifle and a legacy of pride tarnished by tragedy. In the land of the Cheyenne‚ Chantry found himself in the middle of a violent mystery. A long lost treasure was fueling a desperate struggle between a dangerous man and a woman on the run. And when Chantry and his Ferguson rifle take sides‚ the struggle turns deadly. A civilized man‚ Chantry must find a fierce courage within himself — or die at the hands of a man who will do anything . . . kill anyone . . . for the glitter of gold.

Tom Chantry wore no gun and wished no man harm. French Williams was a ruthless cattleman more than willing to use his weapon. But Tom needed Williams to help him drive a herd north to Dodge. Setting off together on a trail alive with danger, soft-spoken Chantry and hard-bitten Williams faced storms, treachery, and Indian attacks. Now the man some call a coward and the man many call a killer have no choice but to trust each other with their lives--for both have enemies and both are pursued by a violence from the past.

Borden Chantry never wanted to be a marshal. His plan was to wear the badge until he could raise enough money to buy cattle. But he was good at his job of riding herd on horse thieves, drifters, and drunken cowpokes.Now, a well-dressed stranger lay dead in the street, seemingly the victim of a cold-blooded murderer. With few clues to go on, Chantry knows only one thing for sure: the killer lives in this town. But who can it be? The ruthless saloon owner . . . the greedy banker . . . the town courtesan? The closer he gets to the truth, the closer Chantry gets to becoming the next victim.

Originally published in 1950, No Survivors was the first of Will Henry’s many novels based on historic incident. In it he shows what General Custer’s lonely stand and final moments at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn might have been like, militarily and emotionally. Though the history books say that only the horse Comanche escaped alive, Will Henry creates one other survivor, Colonel John Clayton—and he was doomed, too. The fictional Civil War officer who once saved Custer’s life, Clayton leaves a journal describing his later career on the western frontier. As a civilian scout for the U.S. Army, he tries to head off the Fetterman Massacre. He is captured by Crazy Horse and taken into the Oglala Sioux tribe. For nine years he lives as an Indian—the adopted son of Crazy Horse, an intimate of Sitting Bull, and the husband of a medicine woman. He rides with the Indians against the white invaders, but by 1876 he has to make a choice about who he really is.

Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human nature. As Wallace Stegner writes, [Clark's] theme was civilization, and he recorded, indelibly, its first steps in a new country.