Bill Serviss is a ruthless, gun-fast ranger in a reckless chase after rustlers...his Colt spat justice in a fight against the toughest outlaws in the west. The most feared man in the town was Cleve Morley, proprietor of the SIlver Saddle Saloon. He ran the ranchers and he ran the prostitutes who worked for him. But he couldn't run Bill Serviss, the lustiest, hardest driving ranger who ever bagged a cattle thief. Previously published as Passion in the Dust
"A thrilling saga of old Montana and a range-land whodunit. Stellar entertainment. Los Angeles Daily News Ex-Marshal Joe Raiford wants to settle down to a quiet life...and is scouting for the right spot for his ranch...when a wounded man, running from two gunmen, staggers into his camp and embroils him in a conspiracy involving cattle rustlers, a crooked lawyer, blood-thirsty killers, and a string of murders that could spark a range war. "A thrilling saga of old Montana and a range-land whodunit. Stellar entertainment. Los Angeles Daily News "The story gets more urgent by the page, with plenty of lead poisoning and a shooting climax." The Daily Oklahoman "The plot is high above average for horse operas. The book moves like a hurricane." The Long Beach Press-Telegram
"A highly recommended western, well-written, skillfully-plotted, and fast moving." Chicago Tribune The corrupt town of Calder, known as The Devil's Doorstep, is brutally run by Mayor Monk Malone as his personal domain and as a haven for gamblers, swindlers, rustlers and outlaws...to the horror and dismay of the local newspaper and the town Reverend, who are virtually powerless to stop him. But then a stranger named Borden rides into town, playing all the factions against one another. It's not clear whose side he's on...or if he's only looking out for his own, mysterious interests. All anybody knows is that he's the fastest gun in the territory and is not afraid to use it. "There is enough action here for any taste." Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Originally released in 1949, it was subsequently republished in 1968 under the title Helltown)
Jim Randall sets out to solve his father's brutal murder..but he's a lone cowboy on the coldest of trails...and facing off against an entire town Jim Randall knows his father, the town banker, didn't kill himself, even if everybody in Briscoe says otherwise. There's a killer out there, and there are plenty of likely suspects, including the bank's greedy vice president and the slick-talking foreman of the Star Ranch. Whoever it is doesn't want Jim discovering the truth and has hired a gunman to put him in a grave...right beside his father. "An exciting western," St. Albans Daily Messenger
The Republic of Texas, 1842. The Texans fought long and hard to win victory over Mexico. They had won independence at last, and now bent to the task of rebuilding their war-wasted land.
You know you're in masterly hands here. [Emily] Ruskovich's language is itself
a consolation, as she subtly posits the troubling thought that only decency
can save us. . . . Ruskovich's novel will remind many readers of the great
Idaho novel, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. . . . [A] wrenching and
beautiful book.-The New York Times Book Review Sensuous, exquisitely
crafted.-The Wall Street Journal The first thing you should know about Idaho,
the shatteringly original debut by O. Henry Prize winner Emily Ruskovich, is
that it upturns everything you think you know about story. . . . You could
read Idaho just for the sheer beauty of the prose, the expert way Ruskovich
makes everything strange and yet absolutely familiar. . . . She startles with
images so fresh, they make you see the world anew. . . . Idaho's brilliance is
in its ability to not tie up the threads of narrative, and still be
consummately rewarding. The novel reminds us that some things we just cannot
know in life-but we can imagine them, we can feel them and, perhaps, that can
be enough to heal us.-San Francisco Chronicle Mesmerizing . . . [an] eerie
story about what the heart is capable of fathoming and what the hand is
capable of executing.-Marie Claire Idaho is a wonderful debut. Ruskovich knows
how to build a page-turner from the opening paragraph.-Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
Ruskovich's debut is haunting, a portrait of an unusual family and a state
that becomes a foreboding figure in her vivid depiction.-The Huffington Post
Poetic and razor sharp, Idaho is a mystery in more ways than one. . . .
Ruskovich's prose is lyrical but keen, a poem that never gets lost in its own
rhythm . . . with a Marilynne Robinson-like emphasis on the private, painfully
human contemplation going on inside the characters' brains. The result is
writing as bruisingly beautiful as the Idaho landscape in which the story
takes place. -A.V. Club Idaho is both a place and an emotional dimension.
Haunted, haunting, Ruskovich's novel winds through time, braiding events and
their consequences in the most unexpected and moving ways.-Andrea Barrett It's
been six years since I first read Emily Ruskovich's breathtaking prose, felt
the force of her unsparing imagination, and knew I was in the presence of a
singular talent. I've been waiting for the novel she would write ever since,
and now it's here: Idaho begins with a rusted truck and ends up places you
couldn't imagine. Its language is an enchantment, its vision brutal and
sublime. This book is interested in what can't be repaired and every kind of
grace we find in the face of that futility. It caught and held me
absolutely.-Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams Emily Ruskovich's
Idaho is a novel written like music. Striking arpeggios, haunting refrains,
and then you come to a bridge, and Ruskovich leads you up into the mountains,
introducing a chorus of rich and beautiful voices woven deep in the Idaho
woods, each trying to come to their own understanding of a terrible tragedy.
This book is full of extraordinary women and men overcoming extraordinary loss
through love and forgiveness. Ruskovich digs deeply into everyday moments, and
shows that it is there, in our quietest thoughts and experiences, where we
find and create our true selves.-Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief Emily
Ruskovich has written a poem in prose, a beautiful and intricate homage to
place, and a celebration of the defeats and triumphs of love. Beautifully
crafted, emotionally evocative, and psychologically astute, Idaho is one of
the best books I have read in a long time.-Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under
the Udala Trees Emily Ruskovich has intricately entwined a terrifying human
story with an austere and impervious setting. The result-something bigger than
either-is beautiful, brutal, and incandescent.-Deirdre McNamer, author of Red
Rover
