Ghost Towns West

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A long-abandoned silver mine for sale sounded like an adventure too great to pass up, but it turned into much more—a calling, a community of millions, and hard-earned lessons about chasing impractical dreams. “Inspiring and meditative—the story of man vs...

The story of the American mining frontier can be traced in the ghost towns - from the camps of California's forty-niners to the 20th-century ruins in the Nevada desert. They mark an epoch of high adventure, of quick wealth and quicker poverty, of gambling and gun-slinging and hell-raising. We who have seen too many Western movies sometimes think that the legends of the Wild West were invented by scriptwriters - but the ghost towns remain.

Three Strangers, 3 days, Trapped in a Ghost Town 100 Years in the Past. Winner, American Fiction Awards Finalist, Eric Hoffer Book Awards Brilliant but burned-out CIA operative Richard Hart has a midlife crisis. He wants out of the intelligence game for good. But he can't resist his last and only opportunity to meet the legendary V.M. Moodbain, a grand CIA Chessmaster, who will do anything to keep him engaged. When Moodbain does not show up for their rendezvous at the appointed time, Hart realizes he has been set up as a pawn in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. He finds himself trapped in a ...

A historical fiction book set in the Kansas prairie during the late 19th century. Step into a world where dreams are built on barren soil and the ghosts of the past linger in the windswept landscape. In "The Ghost Town," follow Calvin Morgan, a tenacious man determined to carve out a life as a farmer in the unforgiving Kansas prairie. As he battles the harsh realities of lawlessness and despair, his journey reveals the thin line between hope and destruction in the small, chaotic town of Levi. As Calvin arrives in Levi, he quickly discovers a community haunted by tragedy and moral decay. The...

Deputy Marshal Zebediah Clemens has a new problem: a legend is killing people. Zeb’s hunt for a petty conman who turned killer leads him deep into the Arizona Territory, where whispers of the fabled Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine have lured the desperate and the doomed for decades. Gilbert Buck isn't the first fool to go searching for treasure in the Superstition Mountains, but Zeb aims to make him the last. What starts as a manhunt quickly turns into something far darker. Shadowy apparitions stalk Zeb through ghost towns and barren hills, urging him onward. When he discovers the murdered ...

Throughout Teller County, history lovers can find abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. Even before Teller was carved from surrounding counties, the scenic mountains and lucrative mines of the gold rush era brought thousands of settlers and attracted resort owners and tycoons eager to exploit the rich setting. Seemingly overnight, towns in the Cripple Creek District and other places popped up, flush with gold and people looking for opportunity. As the ore disappeared, the miners moved on in search of the next big lode.

A haunted Marshal sent to a godforsaken town. A reclusive witch who owns the land a tyrant covets. In a place drowning in dust and secrets, justice is a bloody, complicated affair. Marshal Evelyn Granger is a woman running from her ghosts. Exiled to the sun-scorched purgatory of Dust Devil, her only mission is to serve her sentence and forget the woman she failed to save. But when a miner is found brutally murdered, the simple case of an animal attack unravels into a conspiracy that stinks of greed and something far more sinister. All signs point to the one person the terrified townsfolk ...

A dime novel for a new age! Tales of the frontier in the terrifying territory of New Golgotha. In the haunted frontier of Lone Creek, resurrected-outlaw-turned-monster-hunter Billy Choate is ensnared by dark forces and a sinister figure known only as the Man in the Crimson Hat. Teamed up with another hunter, Delilah Kane and her spectral coyote, Ash, Billy battles deadly shadows and confronts a past that refuses to die. Every step draws him closer to a fate written in blood—will he break the curse or be forever lost to the darkness? "Shadows of Lone Creek" is a gripping supernatural ...

The desert remembers. Across the vast landscapes of the American Southwest—where abandoned highways stretch into heat-shimmered horizons and ghost towns crumble under endless sun—stories linger like dust in the wind. Some are whispered in roadside diners. Some are passed down through generations. Others are warned about in hushed voices after dark. In this chilling collection, you’ll encounter: • Vanishing hitchhikers who walk out of the desert night • Cursed mines that swallow more than gold seekers • Phantom lights that hover over empty highways • Abandoned military sites ...

Local matchmaker and PI Demeter West gets called in to investigate some interdimensional turbulence in the basement of the local library. Over the course of the investigation, Demeter learns some new approaches to tarot work, some local history, some new information about Casper's situation within the multiverse, and some things she didn't know about her husband and daughter.

Cat and the members of her writers' retreat have just arrived in Outlaw, Colorado, an "Old West" tourist town complete with inhabitants dressed up as famous figures from history. But this authentic slice of Americana takes a murderous turn when a college student masquerading as a 19th-century saloon girl becomes history herself. Was she the intended target? Or did she take a hit meant for someone else? With a cast of suspects to choose from, Cat must unhorse the real culprit before a real-life ghost story is given a killer twist

Macon Fallon had never needed more than a deck of cards, a fast horse, and a ready gun; he was counting on those things now as he led an unsuspecting group of settlers to an abandoned mining town. But while Fallon prepared to pass the ghost town off as a gold mine in the making, a funny thing...

"Doc" Hayes had experienced enough tragedy for several lifetimes, but he thought he had finally found his sanctuary amidst the rugged beauty of the Guadalupe mountain range. Together with his friend and business partner, Conor Byrne, a West Point graduate with a taste for adventure, Doc was the center of what he hoped would be a burgeoning frontier settlement. With the arrival of Kathleen Ryan, a young woman cloaked in secrets, unexpected trouble soon follows. And trouble often seems to have a way of begetting even more trouble.

She thought she’d heard it all. Then the hangman called. Psychic witch Allison Lopez has dealt with angry spirits, ancient gods, and haunted radio stations. But nothing prepares her for the call that comes in during her live show: a man describing the unseen hands squeezing the life from his throat in the dead of night. Desperate to help, Allison heads into California’s high desert, where an old mining town’s bloody history refuses to stay buried. There’s a spirit here with murder in its heart, fueled by anger, greed, and a century-old hanging tree. As Allison’s visions reveal a ...

In the aftermath of repeated pandemics, society’s fragile return to “normal” is shattered, plunging families and communities into chaos and transformation. Pandemic Evolution: Survival at Shadow Lake follows Kali Mueller, a resilient young girl whose life is marked by neglect, hardship, and the search for belonging. When her family forgets her ninth birthday, Kali finds solace in an unexpected friendship with Josh Lassiter, whose family brings warmth and hope into her world. The narrative weaves gripping themes of survival, loyalty, and hope. Kali’s journey is filled with moments of...

From the pages of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: When the stagecoach lady gambler, Miss Pandora Parson, and bareknuckle boxer, Corey Callaghan, are riding in breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they think that all they have to worry about is food, water, and finding a way to civilization. They have no idea that something more sinister awaits them and their fellow passengers in the old mining ghost town they take shelter in and no way to know that not all of them will be walking out again.

In the small mining town of Wildcat Ridge, the only thing more plentiful than widows is whiskey. But for Thalia Plunkett, rather than the threat of starvation or losing her home it's s man's descent into alcoholism that shatters her heart. Dinky Moon, the town's handsome and charming bachelor, once the pride of Wildcat Ridge, is now the town drunk. Being one of the only men to survive a devastating mine disaster and losing his wife to another man, caused Dinky to turn to the bottle. Now, his addiction has taken over his life and threatens to consume him completely. Unable to stand by and ...

A disappearing body. Hidden magical talents. An adorable mind-reading dog. And small-town secrets . . . Addie James’s life imploded when she discovered her fiancé cheating and got downsized from her biotech job. So she left Silicon Valley for the haven of her Aunt Kate’s tea and apothecary shop in the peaceful mountain town of Stargaze. There, she plans to take a deep breath and figure out what’s next. But when Addie reaches Stargaze, there’s no trace of her aunt. Until one night, Aunt Kate’s lifeless body shows up and then disappears from the locked shop. And that’s when ...

The Peña gang ravage the Southwest, plundering and killing with impunity. Until, that is, they kill Ben Morrison’s brother for a fortune in rubies. Ben considers himself a used-up former lawman, but desperate for revenge, he calls on ex-manhunt Duel Winston for help. Duel, though, has settled into a peaceful life of ranching and is reluctant to risk his newfound happiness. Until, that is, the ghosts of his past come a-haunting, and he takes to the trail again.

There’s a new bad boy in town… And not just any bad boy—Peter Burton, the one outlaw that’s been on my mind for weeks. This werewolf shifter is a suspected murderer, and I’m going to find him, even if it means upturning this small town. I’ve never really cared for werewolves. I became a bounty hunter to get revenge for my father and stop men like Burton… But when your target’s a sexy cowboy with rock-hard muscles and a sizzling smile, things tend to get…interesting. Too bad he’s not staying long. He’s got one mission in Laudville. Someone else is going to die. Unless I...