The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour: Unabridged Selections From The Frontier Stories, Volume 5

One of America’s most beloved storytellers, Louis L’Amour’s vibrant tales of adventure bring the American West to life. Now, in this sixth volume of collected short stories, L’Amour takes us beyond the frontier with thirty-three gripping stories of crime, sports, and the murky world where the two often meet. From suspenseful whodunits to rueful tales of fortunes gained and lost, this remarkable collection will enthrall and entertain L’Amour fans old and new.

Traversing a vivid landscape, from sunblasted hills and canyons to the nighttime streets of America’s greatest cities, some of Louis L’Amour’s most compelling fiction was set in his own time—whether in the naked electric glare of boxing rings where men go head-to-head with their dreams and demons in an underworld rife with corruption, or along freight docks where laborers toil to earn just enough to get by, or in the penthouses of the rich and arrogant who calculate the odds of how to get even more. Here are tales of innocents caught in the schemes of criminals, detectives hunting down truths that hide more lies, gamblers and beauties, wiseguys and cops. Here is a world populated by the kinds of people who risk their lives to right a wrong, make a buck, or save a friend.

A war veteran makes a journey to visit the man who saved his life in Korea. Instead he uncovers a killing and finds his own heroic cause…. Confronted with an easy chance to steal, an honest man gives in to temptation—and finds himself ensnared in a web of blackmail and violence…. An elderly Hawaiian seafarer is found dead with a hand-carved figure beside his body. Unraveling his murder will mean solving the mystery of a shipwreck—and of the forces that drive some to take fatal chances and others to kill.

Brimming with thought-provoking characters and situations—from a man who awakens from unconsciousness to find a fortune in a burning house to a man who meets a killer who is supposed to be dead in a seedy diner—these thrilling, atmospheric stories course with authenticity and bear the mark of a timeless master.

Louis L’Amour’s world is built on those dramatic moments when men and women cast their fears, doubts, and pasts behind them and plunge into the unknown–into split-second decisions with life-and-death consequences. Nowhere is that more evident than in this latest collection of stories set on the American frontier. Here L’Amour takes us across a bold, beautifully rendered landscape where strangers may come to trust–or kill–one another; where old scores haunt new lives and the wrong choice leaves unwitting victims. Even at the best of times, this is a world in which every man and woman must be responsible for their own survival.

This keepsake volume features unforgettable moments and timeless characters. From fugitives to visionaries, from fortune seekers and drifters seeking a new life to young women trying to build homes in an all too often lawless world, the characters in these pulse-pounding stories are vintage L’Amour. Together in this vivid, rollicking collection of stories, they bring to life the American spirit and confirm Louis L’Amour’s place at the very top of the pantheon of American writers.

With more than 120 titles still in print, Louis L’Amour is recognized the world over as one of the most prolific and popular American authors in history. Though he met with phenomenal success in every genre he tried, the form that put him on the map was the short story. Now this great writer – who The Wall Street Journal recently compared with Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson – will receive his due as a great storyteller. This volume kicks off a series that will, when complete, anthologize all of L’Amour’s short fiction, volume by handsome volume.

Here, in Volume Five, is a treasure-trove of frontier tales for his millions of fans and for those who have yet to discover L’Amour’s thrilling prose – and his vital role in capturing the spirit of the Old West for generations to come.