A small wagon train is ambushed by a group of renegades. The settlers were killed, mules stolen, and the wagons looted and burned. The only survivor is five-year-old Billy Thorne. The boy is rescued and raised by Dusty, a lonely and colorful prospector. Years later, when Billy’s only friend and mentor dies, the young man discovers that the gold Dusty left him makes him a very rich man. Billy finds the empty cabin and loneliness unbearable. He decides to hide the gold and go down the mountain to the town of Rye, Colorado.
In this book, explore the new life of Billy Thorne. Learn about the people he meets, the villains and murderers he overcomes, the education he seeks, and the woman he loves. Billy Thorne’s Gold is more than a Western; it is a story about trust, second chances, hope, and love.
Once again, Charlie Steel, tale-weaver extraordinaire, has masterfully crafted an exciting tale that can be read and savored by readers of all ages.
FIRE CANOE FINNEGAN is historical fiction, action, adventure, and romance at its finest. This story gives a rare insight into the contribution steamboats made to pioneers and army forts along the Missouri River. Captain Glazer of the steamboat, THE DAKOTA DAWN, hires Clint Finnegan to become his second in command and to learn to pilot the dangerous snag-filled waters of the Missouri River. What Finnegan didn’t expect on his very first trip was to have the army payroll stolen and a beautiful woman kidnapped. Risking his life, he chases after the girl and the money, ultimately encountering angry plains Indians protecting their hunting grounds. Told from both the Sioux Indian point of view and that of conquering whites who wanted the land at all costs, this is a thrilling western tale, filled with strong characters. The reader will walk away mesmerized with a well-researched and well-told story.
After his parent’s death, Applejack, leaves the family’s hardscrabble ranch to travel to Trinidad, Colorado. Along the way he fights a bandito and is badly beaten. While recovering, Jack encounters a wounded outlaw and saves the gunman’s life. In return, the young man is taught to be a pistolero of extreme skill.
Arriving in Trinidad, Applejack prevents Bat Masterson from being killed and is hired by the noted marshal to become one of his deputies. The unworldly young lawman falls in love with a wealthy senorita and must confront her hateful and arrogant father. The deputy’s innocence, but great skill with a revolver, quickly elicits the respect of Trinidad’s residents, Masterson, and other deputies, and transforms the ranch boy into a man.
Through the intriguing character of Applejack, author Charlie Steel weaves a riveting and fascinating tale around very real people and events of the old West that include not only the famous marshal but also a wayward and colorful priest.
The discovery of gold in California launched a stampede of fortune-seekers across the continent in search of wealth. Willing to face any hardship – outlaws, hostile Indians, bad weather, thirst, starvation, and the horrors of disease – they battled fiercely to overcome these challenges and seize their destiny. But sometimes the treasures they found were not the ones they were expecting . . .
THE FORTY-NINERS is the fifth novel in the exciting West of the Big River series from the Western Fictioneers. Charlie Steel’s story of courage, romance, and danger is based on historical incidents and vividly illustrates a compelling chapter in American history, recreating a lawless era that exemplifies both the best and the worst in a vital young nation!
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TOM SHARP: The Man and the Legend (A Novel) is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, and carefully-woven mixture of fact and fiction about a young wounded Confederate soldier from Marion County, Missouri, who became a famous and respected Westerner.
Discharged from his enlistment, Tom Sharp joined a wagon train and traveled west. He aimed to earn his fortune, homestead a ranch, marry Katherine Durrett, the lovely young lady he was betrothed to, and start a family. On his dangerous and exciting quest, Sharp encountered renegades, Indians, and slavers–as well as frontiersmen who taught him how to survive in the mountains and on the plains.
Although many of the tales are based on actual events and adventures that Tom Sharp experienced, author Charlie Steel engages his craft as a master storyteller and embellishes and adds situations to honor the accomplishments and integrity of this great man from Colorado.
Tom Sharp’s life, embellished or not, is a story that needs to be told. He was a soldier, buffalo hunter, meat provider for the California and Oregon gold miners, meat provider for the Union Pacific Railroad workers, multiline telegraph pole cutter for the railroad, deputy sheriff, rancher, established and ran a copper stamping mill, built and operated Buzzard Roost Trading Post, bred thoroughbred horses, raised cattle, and was an advocate for Indians, especially Chief Ouray and his band of Utes.
Steel writes a story that rivets the reader creating well-rounded characters that provide a unique and more realistic perspective of the WEST.
Cody Havlicek, Texas Ranger, is a moral man. He is totally dedicated to enforcing the law and will do whatever it takes to bring wrongdoers to justice.
When a series of murders, including that of a fellow Ranger, takes place in the Big Bend region, he is ordered to track down the men responsible. Cody and a young boy he rescued must face and defeat the diabolical criminals. The twisted confrontations and hardships along the way cause Cody to question his strong faith in God. He must oppose his own fear and find the strength needed to bring the killers to justice.
Big Bend Death Trap is not so much a traditional Western as it is a mystery with a Western setting. As Cody will find out, the roots of the crimes he is investigating reach all the way back to the state capital in Austin, where the treachery of one man leaves the young Ranger literally on the brink of death.
