100 Best Western Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

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1

True Grit

Charles Portis

5.0

True Grit is his most famous novel--first published in 1968, and the basis for the movie of the same name starring John Wayne. It tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when 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. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood.

Recommended by Andy Borowitz.

Andy Borowitz

I urge everyone who wants a good laugh to read it. Plus it’s very short – a good quality in a comic novel. [source]

2

Lonesome Dove

Larry McMurtry

5.0

A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.

Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and sett

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3

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

Cormac McCarthy

4.8

An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indi

Recommended by Jocko Willink, Aleksandar Hemon, Bryan Callen, and 3 others.

Jocko Willink

Founder/Echelon Front

The other book that I've read multiple times is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. [source]

Aleksandar Hemon

It’s possibly the greatest American novel of the past 25 years. [source]

Bryan Callen

So here are my three must read books. I've been reading a lot of great books like: Outsmart Your Instincts, The Culture Code, and Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order, and sometimes when you read a lot of nonfiction it’s very enriching, sometimes you need a novel. I really believe you should take a minute and read something beautiful. Listen, listen to Lolita by Nabokov. But also listen to Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and listen to Richard Poe narrate that. Those are two of the greatest feats of the english language that I can think of. Then there’s Fortress of Solitude, an amazing book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, these are great novels. Cold Mountain is a beautiful novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, I mean they’ve been around for a while. But goddamnit, get those under your belt. Those are the novels I think you should read. You know Love In The Time Of Cholera it just makes you ache. Kind of like a Hemingway thing, where Hemingway “ahh!”, it’s the same thing, you know. So I don’t know, I’m a fan of all those books. Those are my 3 slash 20 books. [source]

4

All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)

Cormac McCarthy

4.8

All the Pretty Horses tells of young John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers. Across the border Mexico beckons—beautiful and desolate, rugged and cruelly civilized. With two companions, he sets off on an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

Recommended by Daniel Buttner, Devon Sawa, Meg Rosoff, and 1 others.

Daniel Buttner

Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite authors, specifically The Border Trilogy. [source]

Devon Sawa

This is the best book I’ve ever read. https://t.co/AUJLuRAadm [source]

Meg Rosoff

A book that explores that whole subject of finding out where you belong in the world, which is not a search that starts and ends between 18 and 21. [source]

5

The Sisters Brothers

Patrick deWitt

4.7

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, El

6

The Gunslinger

Stephen King, George Guidall, et al

4.5

In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the K

Recommended by Andrew Elliott.

Andrew Elliott

I am currently reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I try to intersperse recreational, fun reading into my book queue and this is one of those books! I have only just started it, but it is a good read so far! [source]

7

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)

Stephen King, Phil Hale

4.5

Beginning with a short story appearing in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" in 1978, the publication of Stephen King's epic work of fantasy-what he considers to be a single long novel and his magnum opus-has spanned a quarter of a century.

Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, "The Dark Tower" series is King's mo

Recommended by Brian Q Quinn.

Brian Q Quinn

@SI_badboy Eddie is the best. That scene grabbed me the same exact way. Such a great book. [source]

8

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy

4.5

In his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones.

One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss t

9

Hondo

Louis L'Amour

4.4

He was etched by the desert’s howling winds, a big, broad-shouldered man who knew the ways of the Apache and the ways of staying alive. She was a woman alone raising a young son on a remote Arizona ranch. And between Hondo Lane and Angie Lowe was the warrior Vittoro, whose people were preparing to rise against the white men. Now the pioneer woman, the gunman, and the Apache warrior are caught in a

10

News of the World

Paulette Jiles

4.4

In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.

In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through

11

Sackett's Land (The Sacketts, #1)

Louis L'Amour

4.4

After discovering six gold Roman coins buried in the mud of the Devil’s Dyke, Barnabas Sackett enthusiastically invests in goods that he will offer for trade in America. But Sackett has a powerful enemy: Rupert Genester, nephew of an earl, wants him dead. A battlefield promise made to Sackett’s father threatens Genester’s inheritance. So on the eve of his departure for America, Sackett is attacked

12

Riders of the Purple Sage

Zane Grey

4.4

Over 40 Million Copies Of Zane Grey's Novels Sold

The premier chronicler of the American West, legendary storyteller Zane Grey has captivated millions of readers with his timeless adventures of life, death, gunfire, and justice. This is the Old West in all its glory and grandeur. Forged in blood. Enflamed by passion. Emblazoned with bullets. . .

Riders Of The Purple Sage

Cottonwoods, Utah. 1871. A wo

13

Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4)

Stephen King

4.3

Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Jake’s pet bumbler survive Blaine the Mono’s final crash, only to find themselves stranded in an alternate version of Topeka, Kansas, one that has been ravaged by the superflu virus. While following the deserted I-70 toward a distant glass palace, they hear the atonal squalling of a thinny, a place where the fabric of existence has almost entirely worn away. Whil

14

Shane

Jack Schaefer

4.3

I had lain in my bed thinking of our visitor out in the bunk in the barn. It scarce seemed possible that he was the same man I had first seen, stern and chilling in his dark solitude, riding up our road. Something in father, something not of words or of actions but of the essential substance of the human spirit, had reached out and spoken to him and he had replied to it and had unlocked a part of

15

The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1)

Craig Johnson

4.3

Walt Longmire, sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County, knows he's got trouble when Cody Pritchard is found dead. Two years earlier, Cody and three accomplices had been given suspended sentences for raping a Northern Cheyenne girl. Is someone seeking vengeance? Longmire faces one of the more volatile and challenging cases in his twenty-four years as sheriff and means to see that revenge, a dish that

16

The Daybreakers (The Sacketts, #6)

Louis L'Amour

4.3

Orrin Sackett had to be pushed into a fight. But Tyrel Sackett was born to trouble. The night Tye stepped between his brother and a bullet changed them both forever. Now their trail pointed west, to a lawless frontier town called Sante Fe. Orrin took the job of marshal, while Tye commanded respect without a badge. When a loose end from their past turns up, one brother will be forced to revert to h

17

Jubal Sackett (The Sacketts, #4)

Louis L'Amour

4.3

In Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L’Amour’s great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land.

Jubal Sackett’s urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands. He seeks a Natchez exploration party and its

18

The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)

Stephen King

4.3

Several months have passed, and Roland’s two new tet-mates have become proficient gunslingers. Eddie Dean has given up heroin, and Odetta’s two selves have joined, becoming the stronger and more balanced personality of Susannah Dean. But while battling The Pusher in 1977 New York, Roland altered ka by saving the life of Jake Chambers, a boy who—in Roland’s where and when—has already died. Now Rola

19

Sackett

Louis L'Amour

4.3

A drifter by circumstance, William Tell Sackett hungered for a place he couldn’t name but knew he had to find. South of the Tetons, through a keyhole pass, he found it: a lonely yet beautiful valley—with a fortune in gold. Then he found an even greater treasure: Ange Kerry, a courageous and resourceful woman. But the harsh ways it takes to protect his claim—and their lives—may be the one thing tha

20

Dead Man's Walk (Lonesome Dove, #3)

Larry McMurtry

4.3

Dead Man's Walk is the first, extraordinary book in the epic Lonesome Dove tetralogy, in which Larry McMurtry breathed new life into the vanished American West and created two of the most memorable heroes in contemporary fiction: Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

As young Texas Rangers, Gus and Call have much to learn about survival in a land fraught with perils: not only the blazing heat and ragi

21

Appaloosa (Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch, #1)

Robert B. Parker

4.3

When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher who’s already left the city marshal and one of his deputies dead. Cole and Hitch are used to cleaning up after scavengers, but this one raises the stakes by playing not with the rules—but with emotion.

22

Comanche Moon (Lonesome Dove, #4)

Larry McMurtry

4.3

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The second book of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove tetralogy, Comanche Moon takes us once again into the world of the American West.
Texas Rangers August McCrae and Woodrow Call, now in their middle years, continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life -- Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe, and Call with Maggie Tilton, the young whore who loves him.

T

23

Streets of Laredo

Larry McMurtry

4.3

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry comes the sequel and final book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy. An exhilarating tale of legend and heroism, Streets of Laredo is classic Texas and Western literature at its finest.

Captain Woodrow Call, August McCrae's old partner, is now a bounty hunter hired to track down a brutal young Mexican bandit. Riding with Call are an Eastern city slic

24

Switchback: A Patrick Flint Novel

Louis L'Amour

4.3

A doctor with a taste for adventure. A doomed mountain vacation with his family. In the midst of a million acres of wilderness, Patrick Flint is about to discover that not everybody loves the new town doc.

All Patrick Flint wants is a peaceful getaway in the Wyoming mountains for his rare days off. He’s grown weary of the bicentennial celebrations, the angry families of patients, the rash of campe

Recommended by Marvin Liao.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

For Non-Business, I'd have to say Dune (Herbert), Emergency (Strauss), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) or Flint (L'Amour). I re-read these books every year because they are just so well written & great stories that I get new perspective & details every time I read them. [source]

25

To the Far Blue Mountains (The Sacketts, #2)

Louis L'Amour, Jonn Curless, et al

4.3

In To the Far Blue Mountains, Louis L’Amour weaves the unforgettable tale of a man who, after returning to his homeland, discovers that finding his way back to America may be impossible.

Barnabas Sackett was leaving England to make his fortune in the New World. But as he settled his affairs, he learned that a royal warrant had been sworn out against him and that men were searching for him in every

26

Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5)

Stephen King, Bernie Wrightson

4.3

Roland and his tet have just returned to the path of the Beam when they discover that they are being followed by a group of inexperienced trackers. The trackers are from the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and they desperately need the help of gunslingers. Once every generation, a band of masked riders known as the Wolves gallop out of the dark land of Thunderclap to steal one half of all the twins bo

27

The Son

Philipp Meyer

4.3

Soon to be a TV Series on AMC starring Pierce Brosnan and co-written by Philipp Meyer.

Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling epic, a saga of land, blood, and power that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the oil booms of the 20th century.

Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching exa

Recommended by Marvin Liao.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I tend to jump from book to book and may switch if I am interested in some new topic. This is a pleasure for me (which I also do benefit work wise from too). It’s quite a random list because I have eclectic interests (or just scatterbrained most likely) on tech business, AI, general global economy, geopolitics, rising Biotech economy & history. I'm basically 15% to 50% into all these books. [source]

28

The Lonesome Gods

Louis L'Amour

4.3

“I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid.”

This was the boy’s mantra as he plodded through the desert alone, left to die by his vengeful grandfather. Johannes Verne was soon to be rescued by outlaws, but no one could save him from the lasting memory of his grandfather’s eyes, full of impenetrable hatred. Raised in part by Indians, then befriended by a mysterious woman, Johannes grew up to become

29

The Sackett Brand (The Sacketts #10)

Louis L'Amour

4.2

Forty gunslingers from the Lazy A have got Tell Sackett cornered under the Mogollon Rim. They're fixing to hang him if they can capture him alive, fill him extra full of lead if they can't. But the Sacketts don't cotton to that kind of treatment. Hunt one Sackett and you hunt 'em all. So they're riding in from all over—mountain Sacketts, outlaws, cattlemen, bankers and the rest. They'll fight with

30

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold

Ellen O'Connel

4.2

EYE OF SILVER, EYES OF GOLD is a story of romance and family conflicts set in Colorado in 1885.

Anne Wells has embarrassed her rigidly proper family since she was a child with occasional but grievous lapses from ladylike behavior. They blame those lapses for the disgraceful fact that she is a spinster at 28.

Cord Bennett, the son of his father's second marriage to a Cheyenne woman, is more than an e

31

Doc

Mary Doria Russell

4.2

The year is 1878, peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas, a saloon-filled cow town jammed with liquored-up adolescent cowboys and young Irish hookers. Violence is random and routine, but when the burned body of a mixed-blood boy named Johnnie Sanders is discovered, his death shocks a part-time policeman named Wyatt Earp. And it is a matter of strangely personal importance

32

Ride the River (The Sacketts, #5)

Louis L'Amour

4.2

In Ride the River, Louis L’Amour spins the tale of a young woman who has to protect her family fortune from a murderous thief and teach him what it means to be a Sackett. Sixteen-year-old Echo Sackett had never been far from her Tennessee home—until she made the long trek to Philadelphia to collect an inheritance. Echo could take care of herself as well as any Sackett man, but James White, a sharp

33

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains

Owen Wister, Gary Scharnhorst

4.2

In the untamed West, pioneers came to test their fortunes -- and their wills. The Wyoming territory was a harsh, unforgiving land, with its own unwritten code of honor by which men lived and died. Into this rough landscape rides the Virginian, a solitary man whose unbending will is his only guide through life. The Virginian's unwavering beliefs in right and wrong are soon tested as he tries to pro

34

The Crossing (The Border Trilogy, #2)

Cormac McCarthy

4.2

Following All the Pretty Horses in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy is a novel whose force of language is matched only by its breadth of experience and depth of thought. In the bootheel of New Mexico hard on the frontier, Billy and Boyd Parham are just boys in the years before the Second World War, but on the cusp of unimaginable events. First comes a trespassing Indian and the dream of wolves run

35

Down the Long Hills

Louis L'Amour

4.2

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 horse, and the survival lessons his father taught him, Hardy must face the challenges of the open prairie. Using ingenuity and common sense, he builds shelters, searches out water, and forages for food. But as he struggles to

36

The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7)

Stephen King, Michael Whelan

4.2

From the Flap:

All good things must come to an end, Constant Reader, and not even Stephen King can make a story that goes on forever. The tale of Roland Deschain's relentless quest for the Dark Tower has, the author fears, sorely tried the patience of those who have followed it from its earliest chapters. But attend to it a little longer, if it pleases you, for this volume is the last, and often th

37

Death Without Company (Walt Longmire, #2)

Craig Johnson

4.2

Walt investigates a death by poison in this gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Cold Dish and Dry Bones, the second in the Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit Netflix original seriesFans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Hell Is Empty and As the Crow Flies, who garnered bot

38

The Warrior's Path (The Sacketts, #3)

Louis L'Amour

4.2

Filled with exciting tales of the frontier, the chronicle of the Sackett family is perhaps the crowning achievement of one of our greatest storytellers.In The Warrior’s Path, Louis L’Amour tells the story of Yance and Kin Sackett, two brothers who are the last hope of a young woman who faces a fate worse than death.

When Yance Sackett’s sister-in-law is kidnapped, he and Kin race north from Caroli

39

Tucker

Louis L'Amour

4.2

They Turned A Boy Into A Manhunter... Once, impressed by their tales of gunplay and thievery, young Shell Tucker had been eager to call them his friends. Then he saw the men in Bob Heseltine's gang from the other side, when they robbed his father of twenty thousand in hard-earned money. By the time Shell buried his pa, he knew what he had to do. Going after the gold, he rode to Colorado and a town

40

Lando

Louis L'Amour

4.2

One of the great sagas of our time, the chronicle of the Sackett family is perhaps the crowning achievement of one of our greatest storytellers. In Lando, Louis L'Amour has created an unforgettable portrait of a unique hero.

A man never to count out....

For six long years Orlando Sackett survived the horrors of a brutal Mexican prison. He survived by using his skills as a boxer and by making three v

41

The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge

Michael Punke

4.2

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass

The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an ex

Recommended by Ryan Holiday.

Ryan Holiday

Author

Revenge books seemed to be a trend for me this year. I loved Michael Punke’s The Revenant, about a man who bravely challenged his fate in the wilderness just as Edmond Dantes did in prison. [source]

42

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque, A W. Wheen

4.2

One by one the boys begin to fall…

In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

Recommended by Cécile Fabre.

Cécile Fabre

He knows that his pleasure at a beautiful landscape, at the smell of good food, will forever be coloured by what the landscape looked like in the trenches, by the food that was cooked in the trenches. [source]

43

Galloway (The Sacketts #14)

Louis L'Amour

4.2

Trouble was following Flagan Sackett with a vengeance. Captured and tortured by a band of Apaches, he had escaped into the rugged San Juan country, where he would try to stay alive until his brother Galloway could find him. But the brothers were about to find worse trouble ahead. Their plan to establish a ranch angered the Dunn clan, who had decided that the vast range would be theirs alone. Now G

44

Ride the Dark Trail (The Sacketts #16)

Louis L'Amour

4.2

In Ride the Dark Trail, Louis L'Amour tells the story of Logan Sackett, a cynical drifter who changes his ways to help a widow keep her land.

Logan Sackett is wild and rootless, riding west in search of easy living. Then he meets Emily Talon, a fiery old widow who is even wilder than he is. Tall and lean, Em is determined to defend herself against the jealous locals who are trying to take her home.

45

Mojave Crossing (The Sacketts #9)

Louis L'Amour

4.2

In Mojave Crossing, Louis L’Amour takes William Tell Sackett on a treacherous passage from the Arizona goldfields to the booming town of Los Angeles.

Tell Sackett was no ladies’ man, but he could spot trouble easily enough. And Dorinda Robiseau was the kind of trouble he wanted to avoid at any time—even more so when he had thirty pounds of gold in his saddlebags and a long way to travel. But when s

46

Cities of the Plain (The Border Trilogy, #3)

Cormac McCarthy

4.2

The concluding volume of the Border trilogy. In this magnificent new novel, the National Book Award-winning author of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing fashions a darkly beautiful elegy for the American frontier. It is 1952 and John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are working as ranch hands in New Mexico, not far from the proving grounds of Alamogordo and the cities of El Paso and Juarez. Their l

47

The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Collection of all his adventures, 9 Volumes in one Book)

Arthur Conan Doyle

4.2

All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories of the Sherlock Holmes Canon (including "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes") with More Than 480 Illustrations by Sidney Paget & Others

The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated) from Top Five Classics is the only fully illustrated, single-volume edition of the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon available, and features:

• All 4 novels and 56 short stories, including Arthur

Recommended by Andrew Lees, Douglas Starr, and Michael Dirda.

Andrew Lees

It is often claimed that Holmes is the epitome of the rational, cold-blooded scientist but, in fact, most of his crimes are solved by backing his hunches and a fair amount of guesswork. [source]

Douglas Starr

In a world beset by uncertainty and chaos and fear, it’s comforting to imagine there is someone out there who, with keen intelligence and a scientific method, can put things back in order, and make the world safe again. I think that’s part of Holmes’s enduring appeal. [source]

Michael Dirda

It really has a superbly eerie atmosphere. Most Sherlockians, if they had to pick just one story to represent the canon, would choose this one. [source]

48

Butcher's Crossing

John Williams, Michelle Latiolais

4.2

In his National Book Award–winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher’s Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.

It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, ﬁred up by Emerson to seek “an original relation to nature,” drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher’s Crossing,

49

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

4.2

The World's Bestselling Mystery

"Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U.N. Owen."

"Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.

"Eight . . ."
Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . o

Recommended by Rian Johnson.

Rian Johnson

@AdamLanceGarcia I think And Then There Were None is her best book, but The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain are probably tied for my personal favorite. [source]

50

Angle of Repose

Wallace Stegner, Jackson J. Benson

4.1

Stegner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of personal, historical, and geographic discovery

Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America's western frontier. But his research reveals even more about his own life than he's willing to admit. What emerges is an enth

Recommended by Bill Nye and Jonathan Evison.

Bill Nye

Is is about human stories intertwined, just like your life and mine. [source]

Jonathan Evison

I’m just astounded by the scope and magnitude of the novel, and the landscape described. It’s the story of an ailing professor near the end of his life. He’s in a wheelchair and he’s becoming a bitter man. He’s writing his family history, and he goes back generations to the movement west. Meanwhile there is this fore-story going on, which is this great generational battle between himself, an older white male gentleman, and this young, strong-headed, hippy caregiver. It’s just amazing. It’s one of the 20 best American novels ever written. [source]

51

The Quick and the Dead

Louis L'Amour

4.1

When Duncan McKaskel decided to move his family west, he knew he would face dangers, and he was prepared for them. He knew about the exhausting terrain, and he was expecting the punishing elements. What he worried about was having to use violence against other men—men who would follow him and try to steal the riches that he didn’t even possess.

Yet bandits were only part of McKaskel’s worries. For

52

Last of the Breed

Louis L'Amour

4.1

Here is the kind of authentically detailed epic novel that has become Louis L’Amour’s hallmark. It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness. Only one route lies open

53

Kilkenny (Louis l'Amour's Lost Treasures)

Louis L'Amour

4.1

As part of the Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures series, this edition contains exclusive bonus materials!

Kilkenny wasn't looking for trouble when he entered the Clifton House stage station, but trouble found him when a reckless youngster named Tetlow challenged him, drew his gun, and paid for it with his life.

Looking to escape a reputation that he never wanted, Kilkenny settles in the lonely mountain

54

Song of Susannah

Stephen King, Darrel Anderson

4.1

The Wolves have been defeated, but our tet faces yet another catastrophe. Susannah Dean’s body has been usurped by a demon named Mia who wants to use Susannah’s mortal form to bear a demon child. Stealing Black Thirteen, Mia has traveled through the Unfound Door to 1999 New York where she plans to give birth to her chap, a child born of two mothers and two fathers who will grow up to be Roland’s n

Recommended by Mike Benkovich.

Mike Benkovich

I'm a huge fan of fantasy novels when I feel like some escapism in my reading. I've read most of the major fantasy series over the years (completing The Wheel Of Time was one of my life's great achievements ;) ). [source]

55

Texas Destiny (Texas Trilogy, #1)

Lorraine Heath

4.1

She was his brother's wife...

Arriving on the Fort Worth train, Miss Amelia Carson, mail-order bride, had never met Dallas Leigh, the Texan she promised to marry. The tall cowboy at the station wasn't Dallas. He was Houston, Dallas's brother, sent to escort her on the rugged three-week trek to the ranch where Dallas waited. Brought up in war-ravaged Georgia, Amelia thought Dallas's letters made Tex

56

Reilly's Luck (Louis l'Amour's Lost Treasures)

Louis L'Amour

4.1

Val Darrant was just four years old the snowy night his mother abandoned him. But instead of meeting a lonely death, he met Will Reilly--a gentleman, a gambler, and a worldly, self-taught scholar. For ten years they each were all the family the other had, traveling from dusty American boomtowns to the glittering cities of Belle �poque Europe--until the day Reilly's luck ran out in a roar of gunfir

57

Where the Lost Wander: A Novel

Amy Harmon

4.1

In 'WHERE THE LOST WANDER', an epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss.

The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a h

58

Lonely on the Mountain (The Sacketts #17)

Louis L'Amour

4.1

In Lonely on the Mountain , Louis L'Amour's solitary wandering Sackett brothers make a stand together?to save one of their own. The rare letters Tell Sackett received always had trouble inside. And the terse note from his cousin Logan is no exception. Logan faces starvation or a hanging if Tell can't drive a herd of cattle from Kansas to British Columbia before winter. To get to Logan, he must bra

59

The Lonely Men

Louis L'Amour

4.1

In The Lonely Men, Louis L’Amour spins the tale of a man who must elude an Apache trap—only to discover that his greatest enemy might be very close to home.

Tell Sackett had fought his share of Indians and managed to take something of value from his battles: a deep and abiding respect. But that respect is lost when Apache braves kidnap his nephew, forcing Tell to cross the border into the Sierra Ma

60

Mustang Man (The Sacketts #13)

Louis L'Amour

4.1

In Mustang Man, Louis L’Amour takes Nolan Sackett on a dangerous journey into family betrayal, greed, and murder.

When Nolan Sackett met Penelope Hume in a cantina at Borregos Plaza, the girl immediately captured his attention. That she was heir to a lost cache of gold didn’t make her any less desirable. But Penelope isn’t the only one after her grandfather’s treasure; Sylvie, Ralph, and Andrew Kar

61

Little Big Man (Little Big Man #1)

Thomas Berger

4.1

"I am a white man and never forget it, but I was brought up by the Cheyenne Indians from the age of ten."

So starts the story of Jack Crabb, the 111-year old narrator of Thomas Berger's masterpiece of American fiction. As a "human being", as the Cheyenne called their own, he won the name Little Big Man. He dressed in skins, feasted on dog, loved four wives and saw his people butchered by the horse

62

The Sky-Liners (The Sacketts #11)

Louis L'Amour

4.1

The Sackett boys weren't out to make a reputation; it just happened that way. They had crossed Black Fetchen and lived to tell about it.

Now Fetchen was coming for them with the most expensive hired guns in the country. But the Sacketts were no strangers to trouble. They knew what guns were and how to use them, and one thing was sure: when the showdown came, the Sacketts would be ready, and someon

63

Treasure Mountain (The Sacketts #15)

Louis L'Amour

4.1

How do you bring a million dollars in gold down a mountain? First you have to find it, and that's mighty hard when you're tracking a trail that is twenty years old. But the Sackett brothers were determined to find the treasure and to discover if their father, who blazed the trail long ago, was still alive. They just hoped they were smarter than those New Orleans folks who also wanted the gold—and

64

The Dark Horse (Walt Longmire, #5)

Craig Johnson

4.1

Read Craig Johnson's posts on the Penguin Blog.

Walt Longmire goes undercover to save a woman in an unfriendly place

Interweaving classic noir sensibilities and humor with contemporary themes of social justice, Craig Johnson's popular Walt Longmire mysteries transport readers to the sparse and rugged landscape of Wyoming. In The Dark Horse, the sheriff investigates when his instincts tell him some

65

Brimstone (Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch, #3)

Robert B. Parker

4.1

66

Another Man's Moccasins (Walt Longmire, #4)

Craig Johnson

4.1

67

Resolution (Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch, #2)

Robert B. Parker

4.1

The "New York Times"?bestselling author's richly imagined work of historical fiction: a powerful tale of the Old West from the acknowledged master of crime fiction.
"I had an eight-gauge shotgun that I?d taken with me when I left Wells Fargo. It didn?t take too long for things to develop. I sat in the tall lookout chair in the back of the saloon with the shotgun in my lap for two peaceful nights.

68

Comstock Lode

Louis L'Amour

4.1

69

Conagher

Louis L'Amour

4.1

As far as the eye could see was a vast, empty horizon. Evie Teale had finally accepted that her husband wouldn’t be coming home. Now she and the children were alone in an untamed country where the elements, Indians, and thieves made it far easier to die than to live.

Miles away, another solitary soul battled for survival. Conagher was a lean, dark-eyed drifter who wasn’t about to let a gang of rust

70

Kindness Goes Unpunished (Walt Longmire, #3)

Craig Johnson

4.1

Walt Longmire has been sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County for almost a quarter of a century and has meted out justice with charm and a high-powered sense of humor, but when Walt tags along with good friend Henry Standing Bear on a trip to Philadelphia, he's in for a shock. When a vicious attack on his daughter Cady leaves her near death, Walt discovers that she has unwittingly become embroiled i

71

The Man Called Noon

Louis L'Amour

4.1

In one swift moment, a fall wiped away his memory. All he knew for certain was that someone wanted him dead—and that he had better learn why. But everywhere he turned there seemed to be more questions—or people too willing to hide the truth behind a smoke screen of lies. He had only the name he had been told was his own, his mysterious skill with a gun, and a link to a half million dollars’ worth

72

Dig Your Own Grave

William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone

4.1

Johnstone Country. Keeping the West wild.

U.S. Marshal Will Tanner is one hell of a manhunter. But this time, he's chasing six men across three states with one gun and no backup. This isn't justice. This is a suicide mission . . .

DIG YOUR OWN GRAVE

It starts with a prison break in Missouri. When notorious bank robber Ansel McCoy busts out, he teams up with five other outlaws. Then he and his gan

73

Junkyard Dogs (Walt Longmire, #6)

Craig Johnson

4.1

Read Craig Johnson's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community.

A missing thumb and dead developers are only the beginning for Sheriff Walt Longmire

It's a volatile new economy in Durant, Wyoming, where the owners of a multi-million dollar development of ranchettes want to get rid of the adjacent junk-yard. When a severed thumb is discovered in the yard, conflicts erupt, and Walt Longmire

74

Borden Chantry

Louis L'Amour

4.1

The marshal's name was Borden Chantry. Young, lean, rugged, he's buried a few men in this two-bit cow town—every single one killed in a fair fight. Then, one dark, grim day a mysterious gunman shot a man in cold blood. Five grisly murders later, Chantey was faced with the roughest assignment of his life—find that savage, trigger-happy hard case before he blasts apart every man in town... one by bl

75

Comanche Moon (Comanche, #1)

Catherine Anderson

4.1

Orphaned after her parents were killed by Comanches, Loretta Simpson still lives in terror that the warriors will return, her fear so powerful, she is no longer able to speak a word.

Hunter of the Wolf believes that Loretta is a woman of ancient prophecy whom he must honor. But Loretta can only see him as the enemy who has kidnapped her, and she refuses to succumb to his control—or his touch.

Despit

76

These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901

Nancy Turner

4.1

“Belongs on your must-read list. This novel is a gem.” –Omaha World-Herald

The classic adventure of one courageous woman’s life and struggles in the Arizona Territories in the late nineteenth century

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a

77

The Big Sky (The Big Sky, #1)

A. B. Guthrie Jr.

4.0

A classic portrait of America's vast frontier that inspired the Western genre in fiction.

Originally published more than fifty years ago, The Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, trade

78

Dancing on Coals

Ellen O'Connell

4.0

After escaping robbers intent on murder, Katherine Grant says, "I jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Before long I'll be dancing on the coals." The highwaymen were the frying pan; the handsome young Apache who saved her from them was the fire; and the coals? Gaetan.

Rage against the enemies of his people has consumed Gaetan from boyhood. The only use he ever found for any white was to test t

79

Bendigo Shafter

Louis L'Amour

4.0

At what point does a group of strangers become a community? When young Bendigo Shafter and a ragtag bunch of travelers settle in the rugged Wyoming mountains, they quickly come to depend on a toughness and wisdom many of them never knew they possessed. Led by the beautiful and resourceful widow Ruth Macken, the settlers battle harsh winters, renegade opportunists, and the destructive lure of gold.

80

The Texan's Wager (Wife Lottery, #1)

Jodi Thomas

4.0

Thrown off a wagon train with two other women and trying to avoid jail for a murder they committed, Bailee Moore agrees to enter a "wife lottery"--a ploy concocted by the Cedar Point sheriff to secure wives for the men in the small Texas town.

For the sensible Bailee, however, marrying Carter McKoy is like exchanging one life sentence for another--especially since her new husband hasn't even seen f

81

The Haunted Mesa

Louis L'Amour

4.0

The Navajo called them the Anasazi, the “ancient enemy,” and their abandoned cities haunt the canyons and plateaus of the Southwest. For centuries the sudden disappearance of these people baffled historians. Summoned to a dark desert plateau by a desperate letter from an old friend, renowned investigator Mike Raglan is drawn into a world of mystery, violence, and explosive revelations. Crossing a

82

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn, #4)

Brandon Sanderson

4.0

Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.

Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reachi

83

Blue-Eyed Devil (Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch, #4)

Robert B. Parker

4.0

84

Walk on Earth a Stranger (The Gold Seer Trilogy, #1)

Rae Carson

4.0

Gold is in my blood, in my breath, even in the flecks in my eyes.

Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend—who might want to be something more.

She also has a secret.

Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family sa

85

Dances with Wolves (Dances with Wolves, #1)

Michael Blake

4.0

Ordered to hold an abandoned army post, John Dunbar found himself alone, beyond the edge of civilization. Thievery and survival soon forced him into the Indian camp, where he began a dangerous adventure that changed his life forever. Relive the adventure and beauty of the incredible movie, Dances with Wolves.

86

A Serpent's Tooth (Walt Longmire, #9)

Craig Johnson

4.0

The inspiration for A&E's Longmire finds himself in the crosshairs in the ninth book of the New York Times bestselling series

The success of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series that began with The Cold Dish continues to grow after A&E’s hit show Longmire introduced new fans to the Wyoming sheriff. As the Crow Flies marked the series’ highest debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in hi

87

The Man from the Broken Hills

Louis L'Amour

4.0

Milo Talon, narrator, knows Rossiter, blind seven years, was hand his ma Em née Sackett caught stealing cattle. Now Rossiter loses stock as do Balch, Saddler, and Major Timberley. Neighbors suspect each other. Pretty daughters Barby Ann Rossiter and Ann Timberley, and Baker half-sister Lisa cause trouble at box-lunch dance. Who is shooting to kill Milo, and why?

88

Hombre

Elmore Leonard

4.0

John Russell has been raised as an Apache. Now he's on his way to live as a white man. But when the stagecoach passengers learn who he is, they want nothing to do with him -- until outlaws ride down on them and they must rely on Russell's guns and his ability to lead them out of the desert. He can't ride with them, but they must walk with him or die.

89

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

Dee Brown

4.0

Now a special 30th-anniversary edition in both hardcover and paperback, the classic bestselling history The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put down."

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national b

90

Under a Painted Sky

Stacey Lee

4.0

Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is uns

91

The Western Star: A Longmire Mystery

Craig Johnson

4.0

The thirteenth novel in Craig Johnson's beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix series Longmire

Sheriff Walt Longmire is enjoying a celebratory beer after a weapons certification at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy when a younger sheriff confronts him with a photograph of twenty-five armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes

92

The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5)

Stephen King and Simon & Schuster Audi

4.0

Stephen King returns to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the spectacular territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga that stands as his most beguiling achievement.

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his frie

93

Hell Is Empty (Walt Longmire, #7)

Craig Johnson

4.0

Wyoming's favorite sheriff braves a frozen inferno as he races to capture an escaped murderer.

Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaing order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits. Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him d

94

Epitaph

Mary Doria Russell

4.0

Mary Doria Russell continues the story she began in Doc, following Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday to Tombstone, Arizona, and to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral

A deeply divided nation. Vicious politics. A shamelessly partisan media. A president loathed by half the populace. Smuggling and gang warfare along the Mexican border. Armed citizens willing to stand their ground and take law into their own han

95

As The Crow Flies (Walt Longmire, #8)

Craig Johnson

4.0

The eighth novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit Netflix original series

Embarking on his eighth adventure, Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn't have time for cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married in two weeks, and the wedding locale arrangements have just gone up in smoke signals. Fearing Cady's wrath, Wa

96

All Jacked Up (Rough Riders #8)

Lorelei Jame

4.0

Pulling off the ultimate con...if they can keep from pulling off their clothes

Keely McKay knows Jack and Jack Donohue is a certified pain in her Wranglers. The lone girl in the prolific McKay family, Keely needs another man giving her orders like she needs a hole in her boot. What she does need is a restoration specialist so she can open her physical therapy clinic and prove she's left her wild-ch

97

Texas Glory (Texas Trilogy, #2)

Lorraine Heath

4.0

She was given to a stranger...

Cordelia McQueen was a virtual prisoner in her father's house. Until everything changed when she was shamelessly traded in a battle for land and water rights, and thrust into an unfamiliar world as the bride of Dallas Leigh.

He belonged to the land...

Dallas had given his life to the land. Now he aimed to put West Texas on the map. But as he gazed into the eyes of the l

98

Rough Edge (Tannen Boys #2)

Lauren Landish

4.0

This ain’t no love triangle.
This is people not knowing when to let fate do its thing.

Brody Tannen has been the boss for way too long, putting everyone’s needs above his own.
It’s the way his family farm stood while fate took shot after shot against them.
But now he’s got a chance to figure things out for himself.

Everyone keeps pushing him one way, but deep down he knows which way he should go.
Toward

99

Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde

John Boessenecker

4.0

The New York Times Best Seller!

"Frank Hamer, last of the old breed of Texas Rangers, has not fared well in history or popular culture. John Boessenecker now restores this incredible Ranger to his proper place alongside such fabled lawmen as Wyatt Earp and Eliot Ness. Here is a grand adventure story, told with grace and authority by a master historian of American law enforcement. Frank Hamer can re

100

Without Words

Ellen O'Connel

4.0

Bounty hunter Bret Sterling kills Rufus Petty, thief and murderer, less than ten feet away from a frightened, half-starved woman. Rufus should have surrendered. The woman should have kin to help her. But Rufus went down shooting, and the woman has no one. Bret figures by the time he finds a safe place to leave Hassie Petty, he'll earn the five hundred dollar reward several times over.

Hassie doesn