Wayne D. Overholser

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  • Bibliography:
    108 Books
  • First Book:
    January 1954
  • Latest Book:
    January 2024
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Book List in Order: 108 titles

  • The Violent Land

    Big Jim Perrin becomes Oregon's richest cattle boss with the help of frontier hard cases like Dan Nathan. But the more land Perrin wants, the more Nathan finds his loyalties split between his employer and the nesters who lose their land to him. Soon,...

  • The Dry Gulcher

    Justin Albright was a monster who was planning to stampede his huge herd through Maroon Canyon just to see the settlers there trampled into their land. But Dan Matson and the brave valley ranchers weren't going to take the abuse lying down....

  • The Trouble Kid

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    Curt Curran was a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. His boss sent him to investigate the case of Gordy Morgan, a kid who had disappeared after killing the son of a powerful and unscrupulous rancher a couple of months earlier in the small town of ...

  • The Cattle Queen Feud

  • Mason County War

  • Molly and the Indian Agent

  • The Best Western Stories of Wayne D. Overholser

  • Riders of Carne Cove

  • Cast a Long Shadow

    Three-time Spur Award Winning Author Wayne D. OverholserSTAY ON THE SIDE OF THE BIG MEN.That was what Pat Keenan told his son as he lay dying, and young Matt Keenan vowed to follow his father's advice. But when he returned to his boyhood home in New ...



  • Fabulous Gunman

    Every man, woman and child west of the Mississippi knew Bill Womack was the fastest draw around and they all wanted him to do their dirty work. But Womack wanted only to hang up his six-shooter for good. He was determined to live the rest of his life...

  • Desperate Man

    VENGEANCE TRAIL No rancher in Colorado's Dillon Park Territory was richer or meaner than Cameron Runyon. As treacherous as a rattlesnake, Runyon used his wealth to get whatever he wanted. And what he couldn't buy with a fistful of gold, he sent hi...

  • Hearn's Valley

    A Spur Award-winning Author

    Big Vic Hearn was the undisputed king of his vast terrain and he guarded his empire with hired guns. Then one of the fastest guns in the West rode into Hearn's valley, a gun that he couldn't buy. Vic Hearn and Hugh Mobb...

  • Tough Hand

  • Buckaroo's Code

    Unwilling to share the hard-earned profits from the sale of his cattle ranch with the lowdown gunmen he had earlier hired to deal with cattle rustlers, Jackson Malloy begins a one-man war with his foes. Original....

  • Gunlock

    Joe Pardee was hardheaded, trigger-quick, and the closest thing to a father Will Beeson ever had. When Joe was gunned down defending the Box P Ranch against land-hungry settlers, Will stepped in and tried to fill Joe's shoes....

  • Draw or Drag

    There are some men who play life as safe as it can be played, satisfied with their thirty a month and beans, satisfied to take orders, to have each twenty-four hours planned for them by some­one else and to wind up their days riding the grub line an...

  • West of the Rimrock & Draw or Drag

  • The Hunted

  • The Lone Deputy & Desperate Man



  • The Judas Gun

    For two years, thirteen men in San Lorenzo had feared the return of killer Ben Fargo. For the day they had sentenced him to rot in Canon City Prison, he had sworn to get even with them. Now Fargo had escaped and nothing could stop him. Hate in his bl...

  • The Violent Land & The Judas Gun

    In The Violent Land, Dan Nathan is torn between loyalties to his greedy employer and the families who lost their lands to him; in The Judas Gun, an escaped prisoner returns to get revenge on those who convicted him. Original....

  • Hearn's Valley & Tough Hand

    In a double edition, Vic Hearn and Ellie Dunn return to the Oregon valley to battle a greedy rancher, and Jim Sullivan joins a band of guns-for-hire to help the beautiful Troy Manders reclaim her land. Original....

  • Buckaroo's Code & Gunlock

    In Buckaroo's Code, Jackson Malloy and his companions confront a band of renegades who are making illegal demands, and Joe Pardee becomes the peacekeeper of Colorado's Easter Valley, in Gunlock. Original....

  • Bunch Grass & Sun on the Wall

    Gunslinger hired by a local politician masquerade as homesteaders to stir up trouble in Custer County in Bunch Grass , while hardworking Jim Glenn encounters con men, thieves, and fancy ladies during his travels through the Wyoming Territory,...

  • Sun on the Wall

    CHEYENNE BEFORE THE RAILROADS -- THE MAKING OF A BOOM TOWN THE 1870’S… "I had been hearing recently about a new town named Cheyenne in the southeastern corner of Wyoming that was going to be a division point on the Union Pacific. It just might be...

  • The Long Wind & Snake Stomper

    In The Long Wind, Jess Dawson's desire for a piece of territory is challenged by a band of bloodthirsty gunmen, while in The Snake Stomper, bodyguard and hired gun Logan is framed for murder. Original....

  • Day of Judgement

    The blazing story of Colorado Territory--when secret societies ruled a lawless land Kirby Grant was sent to Denver by a secret society on a mission vital to the future of the Union. He knew he had to stay alert. There were dangerous men who knew why...

  • Land of Promises

    In Land of Promises, Mark Manning battles vicious claim jumpers and vengeful Ute warriors to defend the woman he loves, while in A Gun for Johnny Deere, a man with a price on his head out-guns greedy bounty hunters. Original....

  • Nugget City



  • The Snake Stomper

    When Kim Logan is hired by Peg Cody to be her snake stomper, he thinks he's helping a nice lady stay out of harm's way. He thinks he's protecting her from the resident badboy, Hank Dunning, who is trying to force Peg's ranch into forfeiture so he cou...

  • War Party

    WesternLarge Print EditionA dramatic and suspenseful epic of divided loyalty and explosive passion . . . All the Indians wanted was one white man, and they would get him whatever the cost. Ben Holt had a choice: Give the Indians the double-crosser th...

  • Riders of the Sundowns

    WesternMack Jarvis was a tumbleweed before he went to work for the Tomahawk brand in Pioneer Valley. There he fell in love with Rosella Wade, daughter of Tomahawks owner, Soogan Wade. In an effort to secure an income sufficient to support them, Mack ...

  • Steel to the South

    In "Steel to the South," Clay Bond finds himself in the middle of a range war brought about by the railroad, while in "Fabulous Gunman," gunslinger Bill Womack has to use his gun often as he attempts to hang it up for the last time. Original....

  • Nightmare in Broken Bow

    In Nightmare in Broken Bow, gunman Mark Morgan seeks revenge against the ruthless Burke brothers, and a Union secret agent must choose between his mission and the woman he loves, in Day of Judgment. Original....

  • Valley of Guns

    EASY MONEY AND AN EARLY GRAVE Scott Travis was in Piute to do a job. He had the law on his tail, no money in his pocket and a bank to stake out for a hold-up. But Travis had been on the trail a long time, and when he saw a pretty girl in tow...

  • Chumley's Gold

    HARD BATTLES

    Wayne D. Overholser has won legions of fans with a depth of characterization and a range of imagination in frontier fiction, and the two short novels featured in this amazing collection are prime examples of his talent. In "Chumley'...

  • The Bitter Night

    Four strangers who rode to explode the night in violencePAY-OFFFOR4 THE BRITTON BOYS were already wanted for robbery and murder-50,000 would be good travelling company to the Mexican border. SAM KERWIN was married to a young and restless wife-50,0...

  • The Outlaws

    A MAN ON THE RUN

    Del Delaney had been riding for the same outfit for ten years. Everything seemed fine...until the day he was inexplicably charged with a crime by the deputy sheriff. Del knew he was innocent, but the deputy's father was the ...

  • By Gun and Spur

    "ALL RIGHT, BEN. YOU GOT TIRED OF RISKING YOUR LIFE TO PROTECT OTHER PEOPLE. YOU HAD A VACATION COMING; NOW YOU'VE HAD IT. IT'S OVER.” Ben Sarboe didn't know if he was ready to take up a gun again; he hadn't meant it to be a vacation, he'd thought ...



  • Gateway House

    When his brother, who is barely clinging to life, implores him to find the fifty thousand dollars that he had buried before he was sent to prison, Ed Morgan sets out on a dangerous journey to recover the money before it ends up in the wrong hands. Re...

  • Rainbow Rider

    The three short novels in this brilliant collection amply demonstrate the range of imagination and depth of characterization that mark Wayne D. Overholser's Western fiction. "The Leather Slappers" is set in Colorado, where a company employee is havin...

  • Ride into Danger

    They were all out to get Lee Starbuck. If the Indians didn't kill him, his best friend would shoot him in the back. STARBUCK WAS FED UP WITH KILLING. He had promised Melissa that his days of courting danger were over. But there was a troop of sol...

  • Wheels Roll West

    Wayne D. Overholser, winner of three Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, weaves his usual spell of excitement and emotion in these two short novels, appearing in paperback for the first time. The title novel tells the story of a wagon tr...

  • The Three Sons of Adam Jones

  • Wild Horse River

  • Revenge in Crow City

  • The Law at Miles City

    Dave Harmon was a troublemaker who turned lawman for lack of a better job. Despite his rough past, he soon earned a reputation as a town-tamer. When Harmon drifted into Miles City, he had no intention to put down roots, until a crack over the head...

  • Twin Rocks A Western Duo

    A Spur Award-winning Author

    In "Trouble at Gold Plume," Jim Harrigan is a former lawman who is hunting down his brother-in-law, Rush Kane, believing that Rush's dishonesty caused Jim's sister's death. In his pursuit, he finds himself in the middle...

  • Bitter Wind



  • Twin Rocks

    Morgan Dill has returned to Twin Rocks to claim his half of the ranch that passed to his sister Celia when his father died three years ago. However, Celia's new husband has no intention of giving up any of the Rafter D. In fact, he's arranged a prett...

  • Sunset Trail

  • The Durango Stage

    When he raises the $10,000 he needs to buy part of the Katydid mine, Ollie Dutton must get the money from Denver back to Durango, a dangerous journey fraught with outlaws, bloodthirsty Utes, and angry mine owners. Reprint....

  • The Long Trail North

    He crossed the high country with his gun loose and readyBirth of a KillerEighteen-year-old Lane Garth was still little more than a boy the morning Jake Rawlings and his gang rode up to the Garth ranch. Four hours later Lane's father lay in a bloody h...

  • Tomahawk

    SPUR AWARD-WINNING AUTHORTHE RANGE KING WAS DEAD—NOW THE GRASS WAR WAS STARTINGGuy Van Horn had built Tomahawk Ranch by his own harsh strength and his unbending will. Now he was dead, and the Salt Creek settlers—desperate for grass and ...

  • Pass Creek Valley

    In Stage to Death, Bill Mason is a stagecoach guard, but he had once been a wild young hellion back in the Colorado mining camps. He had even once been involved in a bank robbery when he was known as Billy Buck, but that was in the past. For three ye...

  • Shadow on the Land

    Central Oregon -- the last frontier. Transportation is still by stagecoach and freight wagon. There is a movement afoot for a people’s railroad, paid for by the state, to bring the benefits of rails to the area, to make it easier to ship livestock ...

  • North to Deadwood

    THE BIG MANDakota Jones was big -- a big-fisted, big-boned man with a temper big enough for a dozen mountain men.Sam Hargadine was his opposite -- a gambler whose icy self-control was his greatest weapon. But Sam needed Dakota. Only he could lead a w...

  • Standoff at the River

    BATTLE AT BEECHER ISLAND Forty-nine untrained civilian volunteers, two wounded officers and a dying Army doctor were nailed down on a sand-bar in a shallow river by more than a thousand Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Sioux. For the fourth day the squaws an...

  • To the Far Mountains

    The mighty saga of the lusty, courageous men and women who conquered a new nation Day by day, they pushed doggedly across the Great Plains, through a savage, hate-filled wilderness, a nightmare of Cheyenne, Sioux and Comanche. They were a lone wagon ...

  • War in Sandoval County

    SELL OUT AND GET OUT—OR I'LL KILL EVERY MOTHER'S SON OF YOU!Jeff Ardell was a peaceful man and a friend of Big Ben Shortt. But when Shortt got land-greedy and brought in the merciless hired guns to murder the shirt-tail ranchers, Ardell strapp...

  • Law at Angel's Landing

    The mining town of Angel's Landing grew up around a gold strike in the hills of Colorado. Mark Girard had grown up during the boom period, and had witnessed it play out. Now he led a simple, quiet life with a relatively easy job as sheriff. Then the ...

  • The Man from Yesterday

    It was while Neal Clark was in the gunsmith's shop that the Shelly gang attempted to hold up the bank. Neal rushed out of the shop with his rifle, took aim, and fired, repeatedly, killing Buck Shelly and his son Luke Shelly. He may also have wounded ...

  • Beyond the Law

    Two western novels in one volume. Shadow of a Lobo is the story of Cliff Jenson, a mercantile store owner in Palisade who has run into some trouble. In Beyond the Law, Sherman Rawls owns the largest spread in the Red Rock Mesa country. The on...

  • Death of a Cattle King

    It has been eight years since Sam Holt brought his family from the Willamette Valley overland to eastern Oregon, found Paradise Valley, and began what he called Rainbow Ranch. His wife Helen, son Bruce, and daughter Mary had made the trip with him, a...

  • Fighting Man

    Here are two Western novels in a single volume by that incomparable Western storyteller, Wayne D. Overholser. Hate In His Holster is the story of Dave Lanning who was originally rescued as an orphan by a trail boss of a cattle herd moving to a new...

  • Ten Mile Valley

    Mark Kelton is eighteen years old, part boy, part man. On the trail to set up a ranch in eastern Oregon, his parents are killed and the strongbox containing $8,000 stolen. Mark heads out onto the empty plain, where he encounters Bronco Curtis, a man ...

  • The Waiting Gun

    Bill Varney is just a hired hand on his father Mike Varney's Pitchfork Ranch, and his resentment at the way he has been treated has reached the breaking point. If Old Mike had ever cared about anybody, it's Bill's twin sister, Vida. She cares deeply ...

  • Swampland Empire

    Riley Rand arrives in Blue Lake Valley, announces he owns the entire area, and will be bringing a herd of cattle to take possession. But some of the residents don't take too kindly to the news...Wayne D. Overholser, winner of three Spur Awards from t...

  • Guns in Sage Valley

    In Land Rush white families have lined up, waiting for the U.S. Army's signal to move in on the land vacated by the Ute Indians and make their homestead claims. Steve Regan knows the newly opened land well enough and wants to head for the mesa land b...

  • Skull Mesa

    Clay Roland, marshal of Paiute City, was on the street when the young stranger rode into town. Clay's experience as a lawman told him that a stranger might mean trouble for him. He was in the open -- his badge was visible. However, the stranger ignor...

  • Black Mike

    Black Mike Sam Cassidy comes home to find himself in a series of tense confrontations. His father expects Sam to work for him at the local bank, and Sheriff Ben Faraday, for whom Sam worked the previous summer as deputy, is suffering from a ter...

  • The Nester

    “This ranch is mine -- you got to kill me to get it.”All his life, Rod Devers had wanted only one thing -- his own spread.To get it, he hired his gun to the highest bidder. When he had it he hung up his gun.Then Egan Valley exploded into range wa...

  • Law Man

    Bill Worden had been sheriff of Grant County for eleven years, yet now he was faced with the toughest twenty-four hours of his life.He had always succeeded in keeping things quiet between the ranchers and the farmers -- but that was before he had a p...

  • Summer Warpath

    The summer warpath began in late spring of 1876 under the command of General George Crook. Among other officers under Crook's command was the daring and resourceful Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry. The campaign's purpos...

  • Day of Judgment

    The blazing story of Colorado Territory -- when secret societies ruled a lawless land Kirby Grant was sent to Denver by a secret society on a mission vital to the future of the Union. He knew he had to stay alert. There were dangerous men who knew w...

  • The Noose

    TIN STARIN HELLDave Harmon was the best marshal Miles City ever had. And the toughest. He believed in his badge and everything it stood for.But sometimes a man had to step outside the law to live with himself.When Harmon’s time came, it came hard...

  • High Desert

    In the title story, Murdo Morgan left Paradise Valley sixteen years ago, after his brothers had been killed at the hand of the Turkey Track outfit. One year later, his father died a broken and defeated man. Broad Clancy, owner of the Turkey Track, ha...

  • Summer of the Sioux

  • A Gun for Johnny Deere

    Hated, hunted. the saga of kid who became a man too soonThe day Johnny Deere left Star City he became a man. The people he thought were his friends had used and tricked him. They stripped him of his innocence and taught him how to kill. And then...

  • Brand 99

  • Red Snow

    A FEUD BETWEEN FATHER AND SON COMES TO A HEAD -- IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED WHEN HIS FATHER COMES GUNNING... Rick Proctor faces the biggest crisis of his young life. Although he had tried to lead a life separate from his father's, Rick makes a discove...

  • Gunplay Valley

    When Matt Strang, big, powerful, and courageous, bought up Sage Valley for a cattle grazing area, he didn't care about a shirt-tail settler named Poe. Bitter, resentful, thirsting for revenge and seething with hatred for any man who thought he was bo...

  • Ten Feet Tall

    Stories included:

    "The Woman from Cougar Creek""The Price of Pride""The Devil and Old Man Gillis""Shooting for a Fall""It's Hell to Be a Hero""The Tongue-Tied Cowboy""From Hell to Leadville""The Deputy with a Past""Judge Peterson's Colt Law""...

  • Valley of the 99

    Small ranchers in Harmony Oregon are up against it with the price of cattle down and Skull Ranch, owned by a syndicate, trying to buy them out. Dan Riley spends a month trying to find a bank to help them, but he fails. When the editor of The Clari...

  • Gut Shot

    What is it that pushes a man, cold-bloodedly and with his eyes wide open, into a spot where he knows he's buying into trouble — bad trouble, even to the point of losing his life?Dan Quaid was no different from most men—yet at forty he l...

  • The Long Wind

    Three-time Spur Award Winning Author Wayne D. OverholserDAWSON RIDES OFF THE WIND-SWEPT PRAIRIE INTO A FIERY WAR!It's a big country, Dawson, but you're the second hardcase to ride into it—and it ain't big enough for two.Jess Dawson was tired o...

  • Diablo Ghost

    A GHOST WALKED THE STREETS OFDIABLO AND FOUR MENWHERE DOOMED TO DIEThey lynched an innocent man—and paid a terrible price!The day after the most horrible killing in Diablo, the lynch mob strung up an innocent man. The Sheriff was helpless agai...

  • Revenge at Crow City

    I NEVER GOT ALONG WITH PLOW-PUSHERS!Adam Powers was fed up with Crow City homesteaders whittling down his range, so he led some armed hotheads on a raid of fear that ended in bloodshed. The people of Crow City branded Adam a murderer. When the law se...

  • The Bad Man

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • Buckskin Man

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    He was a hard-muscled, long-boned man with a face burned to bronze by sun and wind. His buckskin shirt was darkened by dirt and age; his black hat had two bullet holes in it. There was a knife strapped to his left side, a .45 Colt on his right side, ...

  • Bunch Grass

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    CHUCK HARRIGANWANTED PEACE—BUT HE'D HAVE TO STARTA WAR TO GET IT! DAD NORMAN COULD HAVE KEPT THE PEACE.BUT HE'S DEAD NOW AND THERE'S GONNA BE WAR,CHUCK AND YOU'RE GONNA BE IN IT. Chuck Harrigan was a hothead, but he wasn't crazy. Much as he d...

  • Cassidy

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    HOSE EYES. THEY'D SEEN HIS FATHERTORTURED AND A DOZEN OTHER MEN DIE.NOW THEY WERE LOOKING TO KILL EVERYMAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF RANCHER. A BOY WHO SEES HIS PA DIE LIKE AN ANIMALBECOMES A MAN WHO KILLS LIKE ONE. His father's crime was building a home i...

  • Danger Patrol

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    He'd need all his guts and strength to be sheriff in Turner CountyIt was a small backwater town where a tough judge, a powerful banker, and a big landowner were used to running the show. But now Ed Logan was sheriff, and they'd have to deal with h...

  • The Day the Killers Came

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • Fight for the Valley

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    If it grew or grazed or lived in Indian Valley, it belonged to Mike Dugan. A man could lease land there, drive cattle there, and marry his woman there, but he had to be ready to eat dirt -- or leave -- when Dugan said so. And Tommy Gordon had left fi...

  • Gunflame

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

  • The Last Cowman of Squaw Valley

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

  • The Lone Deputy

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUSTICE Cole Weston owned all the land around Saddle Rock, Colorado, and figured his money made him the law of the land. To his way of think­ing, nesters and rustlers deserved the same fate-lynching from the nearest tree. The on...

  • Oregon Trunk

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    Moving across the country like two great claws, rails of shining steel carved their way into the heart of Oregon's vast frontier. The seemingly unstoppable rail lines could go no further when they reached the land of Hanna Racine. Hanna is an indepen...

  • The Patriarch of Gunsight Flat

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • The Petticoat Brigade

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    A part of "The Bold West" series--with a new edition every month--this audiobook also includes "Winchester Wedding". In "The Petticoat Brigade", the Civil War seems far away from Four Corners in the Oregon Territory. Then two local men take opposing ...

  • Proud Journey

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    You were born into a cruel world, David, and there are times when you have to be tough to journey through it, but be sure of one thing. Be proud of your journey. Don t live in a way that will make you ashamed of it later. Dave Rand often thought on t...

  • Red Is the Valley

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    A CLASSIC OF THE OLD WEST Wyoming Range War! -- Any man with the guts to stand apart, better have the guns to fight alone! Rancher Jim Baron may have had more sand in his head than sense when he stood against cow-boss Sam Clegg's brutal plan....

  • Return of the Kid

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    A SMALL TOWN BECOMES THE BATTLEGROUNDFOR A VERY DEADLY FAMILY FEUD. WELCOME HOME, KID When Jim Dunn, better known as the Kid, rode into his old home town of Cairo, he figured he'd have to shoot fast. He figured they'd remember his saloon-wrecking sp...

  • Ride the Red Trail

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

  • Ten Feet Tall: Collected Stories

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    This collection features twelve Western stories by prolific author Wayne D. Overholser, the genre's first Spur Award winner.

    Stories included:

    • ''The Woman from Cougar Creek''
    • ''The Price of Pride''
    • ''The Devil a...

  • The Trial of Billy Peale

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    ""It's all so easy," Billy was thinking. "So nice and easy the way they're playing it. Taking their time to get me out of here. Nobody making trouble. No guns, nothing. Not a bad way to grab a buck. not bad at all. good sun. food. lie in the su"...

  • West of the Rimrock

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy

    DEAD MAN'S DREAM Murdo Morgan returned to Paradise Valley, Ore­gon, expecting trouble. Sixteen years earlier, his father had planned to help hundreds of families set­tle in the valley. Not wanting to lose their spread, local ranchers had murder...

Award-Winning Books by Wayne D. Overholser

The Violent Land
1954 SPUR Award -- Western Novel


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Wayne D. Overholser has published 108 books.

Wayne D. Overholser does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Diablo Ghost, was published in January 2024.

The first book by Wayne D. Overholser, The Violent Land, was published in January 1954.

No. Wayne D. Overholser does not write books in series.
Pseudonyms / Co-Author
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