The Westerns Collection -1960-1969 - Louis L’Amour

Written by Louis L’Amour
Read by Davis Strathairn, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, George Guidall, Erick Singer, others
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

1960 - Flint (NLS) - Chuck Benson 5h28m
He left the West at the age of seventeen, leaving behind a rootless past and a bloody trail of violence. In the East he became one of the wealthiest financiers in America—and one of the most feared and hated. Now, suffering from incurable cancer, he has come back to New Mexico to die alone. But when an all-out range war erupts, Flint chooses to help Nancy Kerrigan, a local rancher. A cold-eyed speculator is setting up the land swindle of a lifetime, and Buckdun, a notorious assassin, is there to back his play. Flint alone can help Nancy save her ranch…with his cash, his connections—and his gun. He still has his legendary will to fight. All he needs is time, and that’s fast running out….

1962 - High Lonesome- David Strathairn 3:38:50
Considine and Pete Runyon had once been friends, back in the days when both were cowhands. But when Runyon married the woman Considine loved, the two parted ways. Runyon settled down and became a sheriff. Considine took up robbing banks. Now Considine is planning a raid on the bank at Obaro, a plan that will pit him against Runyon . . . and lead to riches or suicide. The one thing he never counted on was meeting a strong, beautiful woman and her stubborn father, hell-bent on traveling alone through Apache territory to a new life. Suddenly Considine must choose between revenge and redemption—and either choice could be the last one he makes.

1962 - Killoe Michael Crouch 3:47:54
Dan Killoe—over six feet of tough, raw, lightning fast man. He had a trail heard and a mass of settlers to get across unknown territory to a new land. Then he gave shelter to a stranger being hunted by Felipe Soto, scar-faced leader of the renegade Comancheros. This time Killoe was borrowing more trouble than he wanted to handle.

Shalako (1962) - do not have - one of the Lost Treasures
He was a white man as cunning as any Indian, a brooding man who trusted in nothing but his weapon and his horse. Shalako was determined to cross the bleak Sonoran Desert—the Apaches’ killing ground—by himself. But then he came across a European hunting party, and a brave and beautiful woman, stranded and defenseless. Shalako knew that he had to stay and help them survive. For somewhere out there was a deadly Apache warrior . . . and he had the worst kind of death in mind for them all.

1963 - Catlow - George Guidall
Ben Cowan and Bijah Catlow had been bound as friends since childhood. By the time they grew to manhood, Catlow had become a top cowhand with a wild streak. It took just one disastrous confrontation with a band of greedy ranchers to make him an outlaw. And when he crossed that line, it was up to U.S. Marshal Ben Cowan to bring him in alive–if only Catlow would give him the chance….

1963 - Dark Canyon -Mark Deakins 4:26:16
When Gaylord Riley walked away from the Coburn gang, he had money and a dream. He worked hard and built a cabin, gathered a herd of cattle, and fell in love with Marie Shattuck.
But when he is confronted with false accusations of rustling and murder, Riley is forced to defend his new law-abiding way of life. Outnumbered and facing a lynching party, Riley is surprised when his old friends return to lend him a hand. But how can they help him and keep themselves out of jail? With the local marshal already suspicious of Riley, the Coburn gang will have to plan well and move fast. But that shouldn’t be a problem. Their reputation was built by doing just that.

1963 - Fallon - Jason Culp 5:13:47
Macon Fallon had never needed more than a deck of cards, a fast horse, and a ready gun; he was counting on those things now as he led an unsuspecting group of settlers to an abandoned mining town. But while Fallon prepared to pass the ghost town off as a gold mine in the making, a funny thing happened: a real-life community started to take shape in the town he’d christened Red Horse. So when a band of vicious outlaws and a kid who fancied himself a gunslinger threatened to rip Red Horse apart, Fallon found himself caught in one predicament he’d never gambled on. He had come to Red Horse to make a quick fortune, but now he might have to pick up a gun and risk his life for a place he never wanted to call home….

1963 - How the West Was Won - Jo Morton 9:01:01
This was written as a tie-in to the MGM movie of the same name.
They came by river and by wagon train, braving the endless distances of the Great Plains and the icy passes of the Sierra Nevada. They were men like Linus Rawlings, a restless survivor of Indian country who’d headed east to see the ocean but left his heart—and his home—in the West. They were women like Lilith Prescott, a smart, spirited beauty who fled her family and fell for a gambling man in the midst of a frontier gold boom. These pioneering men and women sowed the seeds of a nation with their courage—and with their blood. Here is the story of how their paths would meet amid the epic struggle against fierce enemies and nature’s cruelty, to win for all time the rich and untamed West.

1964 - Hanging Woman Creek - Jason Culp 5:19:57
Barnabus Pike is no gunfighter and not much of a street fighter. Eddie Holt is a black boxer in a white man’s world. They’ve both taken their share of hard knocks. Now they’re looking to survive a brutal winter in a remote Montana line shack, collect their pay, and settle down for good. Then they cross paths with a hardworking Irish immigrant and his beautiful, spirited sister, who’ve been burned off their land. It’s a fight Pike and Holt don’t want, don’t need, and don’t dare turn their backs on—especially when one of the perpetrators might be one of Pike’s old friends. Hunted like animals across the frozen countryside, Pike and Holt will risk everything—including their reputations, their dreams—and their lives.

1964 - Kiowa Trail - Ron McLarty 4:33:04
Kate Lundy, owner of the Tumbling B, and Conn Dury, her foreman, told Tom the rules: men from the cattle drives are forbidden on the north side of town. People appreciated the money the cowboys spent but thought them too coarse to be near their homes. Enticed to come calling by Linda McDonald, daughter of one of the leading citizens, Tom Lundy broke the law and crossed the line. Later that night, he was dead.
Outraged by her brother’s murder, Kate vows to destroy the entire town. But when Aaron McDonald sends east for an army of hired guns, Conn Dury and the men of the Tumbling B soon wonder if the price of Kate’s revenge is too high.

1965 - The High Graders - Jason Culp 6:13:52
The story was that Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight, but Mike Shevlin knew it couldn’t be true: the man who’d been like a father to him had been a Quaker. But when Shevlin rides back to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth, he finds that the quiet ranching community has become a booming mining town. Newfound wealth has not made Rafter a peaceful place, however, and the smell of fear and greed is thick in the air. As Mike Shevlin tries to unravel the mystery of Patterson’s death, he is led deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that controls not only the fate of Rafter Crossing but the heart of a beautiful but tormented young woman—and Shevlin’s own destiny.

1965 - The Key-lock Man - Jason Culp 4:39:09
He had led the posse for miles through the desert, but now Matt Keelock was growing desperate. He was worried about Kristina. His trip to the town of Freedom for supplies had ended in a shootout. If caught he would hang. Even though Kris could handle a horse and rifle as well as most men, the possibility of Oskar Neerland’s finding her made Matt’s blood run cold. He knew the violent and obsessive Neerland, publicly embarrassed when Matt had stepped in and stolen Kris away, would try to kill them both if given half a chance. Matt tried to convince himself that Neerland had returned to the East. But Matt was wrong. Miles away in the town of Freedom, Oskar Neerland was accepting a new job. In his first duty as marshal, he would lead the posse that was tracking down Matt Keelock.

The Broken Gun (1966) Jason Culp 04:35:06
Ninety years ago the Toomey brothers, along with twenty-five other men and four thousand head of cattle, vanished en route to Arizona. When writer and historian Dan Sheridan is invited to the missing brothers’ ranch by its current owner, he jumps at the chance. The visit fits right in with his plan to solve the century-old mystery—but it turns out that his host isn’t a fan of books, writers, or people who don’t mind their own business.
Soon Dan is living the dangers of the Old West firsthand—tracked through the savage wilderness by vicious killers straight out of the most violent pages of his stories. However, his enemies have made one serious mistake: Sheridan is no pencil-pushing greenhorn, and killing him won’t be as easy as they think.

1966 - Kid Rodelo - Edoardo Ballerini 4:02:55
Joe Harbin hadn’t killed a man for a fortune in gold just to sit in prison and let Rodelo collect it. But when he and his men break out and head for the stash, they end up with a pair of unwelcome partners: Rodelo and a beautiful woman with a hidden past. To get fifty thousand dollars in gold across fifty miles of desert, the desperate band quickly learns how much they need each other—and how deep their greed and suspicion can run. At the end of the journey lie the waters of Baja and a new life in Mexico, but first they have to survive the savage heat, bounty-hunting Yaqui Indians, and the shifting, treacherous nature of both the desert sands and their own conflicting loyalties.

1966 - Kilrone (NLS) - Hal Tenny 4hrs56min
When Major Frank Paddock and Barnes Kilrone were dashing young officers in Paris, they both fell in love with the same woman. But now they are men in exile in one of the harshest territories of the American West. It is against this inhospitable backdrop, where survival itself is a day-to-day struggle, that Paddock makes a fateful decision that will plunge both men into a headlong battle for their lives and the lives they’re sworn to protect. As Paddock leads his company of soldiers in pursuit of a Bannock war party, Kilrone is left behind to guard the post’s women and children. And before the day is over, one of them, outnumbered and outgunned, will be trapped in a fight to the finish….

1967 - Matagorda - Ari Fliakos 5:08:20
Tap Duvarney lost his innocence in the War Between the States and then put his skills to the test as a soldier in the frontier army. Now, leaving behind a devoted fiancée, he is trying to make his fortune on the Texas coast, working a ranch as the partner of his old friend Tom Kittery—and finding himself in the middle of a feud between Kittery and the neighboring Munson family. Around Matagorda Island, most people are either backing the Munsons or remaining silent. But the danger from outside Kittery’s camp is nothing compared to the threat within, as Tap begins to suspect that Kittery’s woman, a Texas-born beauty who misses the glitz and glamour of city life, isn’t everything she appears to be. Tap is quickly discovering that he must go to war again. But will it be with the Munsons—or with his closest friend?

1968 - Brionne -Erick Singer 04:03:27
Major James Brionne brought Dave Allard to trial for murder. Just before the hanging, Dave swore his brothers would take vengenance. . .Four year later the Allard boys retumed to settle the score. Only Brionne’s son escaped. They murdered his wife, destroyed his home, and left Brionne nothing but the charred ruins of his past to haunt him. Seeking peace and a new life, Brionne and the boy headed west. But the Allards hadn’t finished with him. He knew they’d call him for a showdown-and this time he’d be ready . . . .

1968 - Chancy (NLS) Ed Sheppard 4h58m
He was an orphan from the hills of Tennessee and he hadn’t eaten in three days. With the front of his stomach making friends with the back, he was in no position to let an opportunity slip by unnoticed. And when Chancy defended his new herd of cattle with a shotgun, he didn’t miss. The dead man left a pistol on the ground. Chancy needed a spare and, after stowing it in his bedroll, forgot about it. He had a cattle drive to finish and a profit to make. But the gun had a history. Another killing had taken place and Chancy would never know the truth until it was too late. Now, locked in a jail cell with an angry, drunken mob outside and time running out, he must somehow find a way to prove his innocence.

1968 - Down the Long Hills (NLS) James Westbrook 4h55m
Everyone was dead. Indian raiders massacred the entire wagon train. Only seven-year-old Hardy Collins and three-year-old Betty Sue Powell, managed to survive. With a knife, a faithful stallion, and the survival lessons his father taught him, Hardy must face the challenges of the open prairie as they head west in search of help. Using ingenuity and common sense, Hardy builds shelters, forages for food, and learns to care for Betty Sue. But their journey through this hostile wilderness is being tracked by even more hostile men. And, as he struggles to keep them alive, Hardy realizes that their survival may depend on his ability to go far beyond what his father had been able to teach him.

1969 - Conagher - Mark Luca (NLS) 4h26m
As far as the eye can see is a vast, empty horizon. Evie Teale has finally accepted that her husband won’t be coming home. To make ends meet she runs a temporary stage station. But though she is diligent and careful, Evie must prepare for the day when the passengers no longer come and she must protect her children in an untamed country where’s it’s far easier to die than to live.

Miles away, another solitary soul battles for survival. Conagher is a lean, dark-eyed drifter who is not about to let a gang of rustlers push him around. While searching the isolated canyons for missing cattle, he finds notes tied to tumbleweeds rolling with the wind. The bleak, spare words echo Conagher’s own whispered prayers for companionship. Who is this mysterious woman on the other side of the wind? Conagher only hopes he can stay alive long enough to find her.

1969 - The Empty Land -Edward Hermann 5:30:11
For thousands of years the lonely canyon knew only wind and rain, wild animals, and an occasional native hunter. Then a trapper found a chunk of gold, and everything changed overnight. In six days a town called Confusion appeared . . . and on the seventh it could disappear, consumed by the flames of lawlessness and violence. On one side are those who understand only brute force. On the other are men who want law and order but are ready to use a noose to achieve their ends. Between them stand Matt Coburn and Dick Felton: one a hardened realist, the other an idealist trying to dig a fortune from the muddy hillside. Outnumbered and outgunned, Felton and Coburn can’t afford to be outmaneuvered. For as the two unlikely allies confront corruption, betrayal, and murder in an attempt to tame a town where the discovery of gold can mean either the fortune of a lifetime or a sentence of death, they realize that any move could be their last.

Six of these books are NLS recording for the blind. I am missing only one 1960 – 1969, Shalako.

Many of these are “Lost Treasurers”. Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures is a project created to release some of the author’s more unconventional manuscripts from the family archives. Most NLS books are Lost Treasurers

Conagher is to be released in Aug 2019.