The narrator interrupts reminiscences about his childhood spent in late-nineteenth-century France to recall the affair which a friend of the family carried on with young Odette de Crecy.

"For thousands of years the lonely canyon knew only wind and rain, wild animals, and an occasional native hunter. Then a trapper found a chunk of gold, and everything changed overnight. In six days a town called Confusion appeared...and on the seventh it could disappear, consumed by the flames of lawlessness and violence. On one side are those who understand only brute force. On the other are men who want law and order but are ready to use a noose...

"Adam Stark had found gold. In the confusion of the mesas and canyons near Rockinstraw Mountain, Stark, his wife, Consuelo, and his sister, Miriam, were quietly working a rich vein while keeping their presence a secret from raiding Apaches. Worried that his wife might leave him, Stark wanted to make enough money to take her to San Francisco, where she could enjoy the style of life she craved. But when Taggart, a stranger on the run from a vicious...

The abandoned cabin seemed like a good place to settle down, except for the dead man in the front yard. But Doby Kernohan and his father had traveled a long way seeking a new start, and they were in no position to be choosy. Unfortunately, the mysterious man's violent end was an omen of darker events to come, for a cycle of violence that had begun long ago was about to reach an explosive conclusion. Caught in a tangle of murder, greed, and blood vengeance,...

"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, Chantry 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 bloody one." -- Page [4] cover.

Obsessed with avenging his parents' murder by outlaws, Val Trevallion travels to Virginia City where the world's largest silver strike is likely to attract the killers he is searching for.

"It was a name that caused the most hardened gunmen to break out in a cold sweat. Chick Bowdrie. He could have ridden the outlaw trail, but the Texas Rangers recruited him because they didn't want to have to fight against him. Pursuing the most wanted men in the Southwest, he knew all too well the dusty trails, the bitter cattle feuds, the desperate killers, and the quiet, weather-beaten, wind-blasted towns that could explode into action with the...

"A collection of Louis L'Amour detective stories--vivid tales as memorable and exciting as his beloved frontier fiction. Each story is personally selected, with an introduction, by the author. In the dark alleys of the pulsing cities and the savage criminal wilderness, Louis L'Amour introduces a new brand of characters: men like Kip Morgan, the ex-fighter turned detective who is tough enough to bounce a bouncer, yet has more up his sleeve than sheer...

"It seemed the perfect place to lie low. The owner of the ranch was an attractive, gray-haired lady who had once been an actress. The other woman was a beautiful, fragile-seeming blonde. They needed repairs done, and he needed to disappear for a while. The first sign that things were not as they should be was when a Pinkerton man questioned him about a missing woman. Then he accidentally found a will belonging to the previous owner of the ranch. After...