Historical Mysteries America

A collection of stories capturing what it means to be a cowboy.

A collection of stories from the most famous Western author of all time! Desert Death-Song is a compilation of some of Louis L’Amour’s greatest stories, many of which might otherwise be difficult to find. Whether he was writing under his early pen name, Jim Mayo, or his own, L’Amour’s stories are unforgettable, touching on rough and rugged American ideals, and set in the untamable frontier of the Western United States.

True Crime in Adams County Adams County, Illinois...a place where the Mississippi carves its path through the land and history runs deep in every brick and backroad. But beneath the surface of this quiet Midwestern county lies a trove of chilling secrets and unspeakable acts long whispered about and rarely confronted. In True Crime in Adams County, these unforgettable stories take readers on a haunting journey through two centuries of murder, mystery, and mayhem. These are not fictional accounts, but true events pulled from dusty courthouse records, yellowed newspaper clippings, and the ...

Five years after losing her husband, Madeline Banks is finally steady on her feet until a gang of outlaws attacks her ranch and she barely escapes with her life. Hunted through the hills of Sangre Pass, she takes refuge in a crumbling outpost and prepares for the worst. When a weathered stranger finds her hiding there, is he the threat she fears—or the only ally she has left? Jebediah Hurst, a former officer turned recluse, known as the Hermit of Sangre Pass, is a man with a haunted past and no interest in unfinished business. When he finds a desperate woman chased by the same ruthless ...

Sam Morrison leaves his Texas ranch with one mission: honor his father’s dying wish and find the sister he’s never met. He joins a wagon train to California, expecting rough trails and merciless outlaws, but not a strong, beautiful woman who hides dangerous secrets. Eliza Blake was meant to marry wealth and power, not the man she could love. Fleeing Boston under a false name, she hopes the vast frontier will swallow her past. But as she unites with Sam, bounty hunters and a jealous rival are closing in, putting the entire wagon train in peril. As bullets fly and loyalties are tested, ...

A historic western that opens in 1873, a time when recession is forcing thousands westwards to recoup their fortunes. The West is tough, brutal and the Indian is the enemy. But when a white woman is raped, it is a half-breed Cheyenne who comes to the rescue. From the author of Jake and Upland Passage.

Evelyn Harper shoots her abusive husband to protect her son, then flees Indiana under the cover of night. They find refuge in Arlington, Wyoming, where Evelyn starts over as a seamstress, but danger isn’t finished with her yet… Widowed sheriff Jonathan Tate has kept his heart buried since his wife's death, focused solely on protecting his town. Yet, Evelyn’s strength and guarded warmth catch him off guard. He senses she’s running from something, and he’s not sure if he can trust her… or afford not to. When ruthless outlaws appear in Arlington, Evelyn and Jonathan face their ...

Beneath the cobblestone streets and Spanish moss of America’s oldest city lies a history written in blood. St. Augustine, Florida, is a city of sun-drenched beaches, charming colonial architecture, and a romantic, old-world allure that draws millions of tourists each year. But behind the beautiful facade is a dark and violent past that stretches back centuries—a legacy of mayhem that has never truly gone away. This gripping true crime anthology unearths the shocking stories of murder and mystery that haunt the Ancient City. From its brutal founding to the chilling crimes of the modern ...

After a violent train robbery, a stranger is left for dead, with no memory of who he is. Rescued by the rancher Sam Garrett and his widowed sister Sarah, he takes the name "Jack" and begins the slow road to recovery, never knowing if the men who attacked him will return to finish the job… Grateful for their kindness, Jack works to repay them. He has a natural way with horses, yet no memory of the life he left behind. The more time he spends at the ranch, the stronger his bond grows with Sarah, a bond shadowed by the mystery of who he was before the robbery. But Copper Valley is no safe ...

Nathan King was once a lawman until a brutal event shattered his world and forced him to abandon his badge. Now a hardened bounty hunter, he chases outlaws across the West, driven by a desperate need for redemption he fears may never come… David is a fierce Comanche tracker, a man without a tribe who survives on skill, grit, and the scars left by a war that stole his family and his home. Haunted but unyielding, he’s learned to trust no one, especially the man whose past still casts a long shadow over his own. When a powerful railroad baron hires Nathan and David to take down an outlaw ...

The Aldens are excited to visit a deserted South Seas island. But soon they discover clues that they are not alone. Is someone on the island watching them?

Fact: In the 1980s, a Vatican archbishop and rogue group of Freemasons were implicated in the murder of Pope John Paul I. A decade later, that same cleric illicitly acquired an ancient Templar scroll directly undermining fundamental Church teachings. Today, historians Cameron Thorne and Amanda Spencer-Gunn stumble upon a sword engraved with a map leading to this hidden scroll. A pope was murdered the first time to keep the scroll a secret. Can Cam and Amanda escape a similar fate?

At the start of a new century, a shocking murder transfixes Manhattan, forcing bitter rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to work together to save a man from the gallows. Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house—and doesn’t come home. Has she eloped? Run away? No one knows—until her body appears in the Manhattan Well. Her family insists they know who killed her. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma. But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor.

A tale of terrorism, espionage, and an epic struggle for justice in an America on the verge, sparked by a massive and mysterious explosion in New York Harbor in 1916.

That year, while the Allied and Central forces waged war in Europe, a group of German saboteurs blew up Black Tom Island, a spit of land in New York Harbor within earshot of downtown Manhattan. The subsequent hail of missiles and gunpowder devastated much of lower New York City.

A mysterious race of North American giants. An ancient Hebrew inscription in a Cherokee burial mound. A blood oath made by blindfolded Freemasons. Are these three historical oddities the reason the CIA is trying to brainwash historian Cameron Thorne and his fiancee Amanda Spencer-Gunn? The answer lies buried in the legends of the Knights Templar, within the rituals of the secretive Freemasons and, most significantly of all, inside the bowels of the Smithsonian Institution

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.

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 to Doc Holliday, the frail 26-year-old dentist who has just opened an office at No. 24, Dodge House.

After years of war and months in a prison camp, Jed Markum returns to Dry Gulch with hope in his heart. But his hometown is dying, the land scorched and the people broken. What was once home now lives in the grip of a ruthless man. Mary Beaumont has lost everything to a villain determined to claim what little she has left. Desperate and alone, she plans to fight, though deep down she knows it is a battle she cannot win. Then Jed walks back into her life, and for the first time in years, she dares to hope. Bound by a common enemy, Jed and Mary join forces against the man who destroyed their ...

The New York Times best-selling author continues his colonial-era thriller series with eight tales of mystery, adventure, and supernatural suspense.

Why would a collector of ancient American artifacts hand over his prized pieces to a historian and then shoot himself in the head? And why does an ancient Templar scroll in his possession refer to Jesus as "The Thief on the Cross"? The answers place historian Cameron Thorne at the dangerous intersection of secret American history and modern geopolitical intrigue.