Theodore Victor Olsen was een Amerikaanse auteur van westernfictie, bekend om zijn suggestieve verhalen over de grens. Ondanks dat hij het grootste deel van zijn leven in Wisconsin woonde, gebruikte Olsen uitgebreid onderzoek om authentieke en levendige portretten van het Westen te creëren. Zijn stijl wordt gekenmerkt door nauwgezette aandacht voor setting en de ontwikkeling van personages die op de pagina echt tot leven komen. Olsen dook in het hart van het western-genre en bood lezers spannende en meeslepende ervaringen.
"Raised by an outlaw, Johnny Vano only knew life on the run. Then a Wyoming bank job goes belly up ending the Vano gang and sending Johnny to a watery grave. Rescued by a rough-hewn ranch family, Johnny gets the chance for a fresh start and takes on a ruthless gang to save the family's ranch"--
Set against the backdrop of the Wyoming Rockies, the story follows Will Parry, a Civil War veteran who has rebuilt his life after losing an arm. As he strives to create a promising future for himself and his family, his past resurfaces in a menacing way when a mysterious gunman begins targeting his home. The tension escalates as Parry must confront the shadows of his history while protecting his loved ones and his hard-won life.
Ike Banner had suffered a great deal of pain in his life and had always come through it. But nothing could match the pain his three sons caused him. Just as he had in life, Ike was determined to curb his sons’ wrong-headedness after his death. He was sure he had been fair in his will and had done right by his claimed — and unclaimed — sons.
A Man Named Yuma Son of an Apache chief and a captured white woman, he was an outcast from two worlds. A sometime army scout and a natural-born loner, he was as tough as the Indians and wise in their ways. Since he had no place to go, he took to fighting and wandering as his way of life. But every man must face his destiny--no matter how deadly it might be. Yuma's fate was to meet up again with the no-good, murdering brother who had betrayed him. Yuma knew that the showdown had to be--and that only one of them would ride away. Blizzard Pass In a lonely ghost town called Thirty Mile, a bitter winter was bearing down. The last stagecoach had just checked into the post when the door opened and let in some raw cold and a band of desperate men. They were looking for a stolen cache of greenbacks, and they had already robbed and killed to get it. Just one of the murderers--the hardcase named Raven--seemed to care about protecting the pretty young widow with the sharp tongue. But with his own brother also gunning for the outlaw band, Raven had a tough choice to make....
Run to the Mountain When the big cat killed his horse, Bowie Candler just sort of borrowed another from a local herd. To the Trapp boys, however, Bowie was a no-good thief, and once they ripped the hide off him, they dragged him back to their ranch for more of the same. But on the Trapp spread, old man Trapp offered Bowie a job. Bowie didn't take to the situation too well; nor did the Trapp boys. Trouble sure was brewing between Bowie and the Trapp boys--trouble that could only end with bullets flying and blood staining the frontier. Day of the Buzzard Val Penmark was pure iron with the fury of a tiger. With a bellyful of hate and a fistful of lead, he set out after the men who killed his wife--seven robbers headed for Mexico. Alongside Penmark rode young Jason Drum. An innocent boy who was no match for the gang of killers, Jason wanted to get his family's savings back. He couldn't understand the ruthless violence that Penmark nursed in his guts. But Jason was going to learn about that all by himself--and much too soon....
High Lawless Hot mile after weary mile, the pure joy of revenge ate away at Ed Channing's guts. But the trail of the drygulcher who'd killed his partner landed Channing smack in the middle of a seething range war. No stranger to violence, he was ready to outgun any man who crossed his sights. It would take a blazing shootout to settle all the scores--and one good man to bring justice to a lawless land. Savage Sierra Chingo, Charbonneau, Bonito, and Kincaid were four desperate men with one thought stuck in their renegade minds: kill Angsman. Gun him down, string him up--they didn't care. Even without those bushwackers hunting him, Angsman was going to have trouble staying alive. The three damn fools he was leading across the blistering desert would see to that--if the Apaches didn't ambush them first. But Angsman knew a man stayed dead for a long, long time, and he wasn't ready to go to hell just yet.
CANYON OF THE GUN In the dry Southwest, ranchers were killing for water the way outlaws murdered for gold. And when the fight for precious Blue Horse Spring left his father a dead man, Calem Gault stood alone against the range king who had pulled the trigger. He was just a green kid with fury in his blood. But before he was done, young Gault would have justice--even if it meant a one-way ticket to Boot Hill. HAVEN OF THE HUNTED Lute Danning had ridden with Quantrell's raiders, the most ruthless Confederate guerrilla band that ever terrorized the border states. With the Civil War over, Danning wanted to gather outlaws to kill, rob, and sabotage the Union victors. He needed a leader with nerve, youth, and cunning. The only trouble was the wrong man showed up--one who had fought for the North and despised every Johnny Reb who ever battled to save Dixie.
THE WEST IN ALL ITS GLORY! T.V. Olsen's Western stories have long been noted for their depth of emotion and their sheer excitement, guaranteed to grip readers and transport them back to the days when the West was wild and men made their own laws. This collection features twelve of his greatest tales, including the title story, in which a man wanders onto the Whippletree Ranch, disoriented and suffering from amnesia, setting off a series of bitter clashes that may lead to a bloody range war. But each story is a prime example of the best the West can offer, filled with courage and honor, action and adventure.
The Man from Nowhere When a Wyoming bank job went belly up, the notorious Vano Gang was wiped out, and Johnny Vano was almost sent to a watery grave. Then a rough-hewn ranch family saved his life and gave the young hard case a chance for a new start. But repaying their kindness turned out to be more lethal than dodging the law's lead, because Johnny had to stop a cattle-rustling conspiracy dead in its tracks. To do so, he had to face a treacherous enemy from the past and settle the score in blood. Bitter Grass He weathered the brutality and torture of a prisoner-of-war camp. He survived the loss of his fiancée to another. He shot down or destroyed anything that stood between him and his lifelong dream of a mighty cattle empire. All the misfortune in the world tried to break Jonathan Trask, but he would not break. Then, almost too late, he realized that he himself was responsible for the thing that could snap him like a twig. And if he didn't act quickly, the taste of lead would be the best--and easiest--death he could hope for.