A vicious, murdering gang is blazing its way across the prairie, leaving a bloody trail of corpses in its wake. But what really riles Clint Adams is that these desperadoes do their dirty work while calling themselves lawmen. Clint had heard of Daniel Tolliver and his team of killers long before their paths crossed in New Mexico Territory. Aiming straight for the shiny badges they're hiding behind, the Gunsmith plans to show them what law and order really means...
America’s most notorious family feud began in 1865 with the murder of a Union McCoy soldier by a Confederate Hatfield relative of "Devil Anse" Hatfield. More than a decade later, Ranel McCoy accused a Hatfield cousin of stealing one of his hogs, triggering years of violence and retribution, including a Romeo-and-Juliet interlude that eventually led to the death of one of McCoy’s daughters. In a drunken brawl, three of McCoy's sons killed Devil Anse Hatfield’s younger brother. Exacting vigilante vengeance, a group of Hatfields tied them up and shot them dead. McCoy posses hijacked part of the Hatfield firing squad across state lines to stand trial, while those still free burned down Ranel McCoy’s cabin and shot two of his children in a botched attempt to suppress the posses. Legal wrangling ensued until the US Supreme Court ruled that Kentucky could try the captured West Virginian Hatfields. Seven went to prison, and one, mentally disabled, yelled, “The Hatfields made me do it!” as he was hanged. But the feud didn’t end there. Its legend continues to have an enormous impact on the popular imagination and the region. With a charming voice, a wonderfully dry sense of humor, and an abiding gift for spinning a yarn, bestselling author Lisa Alther makes an impartial, comprehensive, and compelling investigation of what happened, masterfully setting the feud in its historical and cultural contexts, digging deep into the many causes and explanations of the fighting, and revealing surprising alliances and entanglements. Here is a fascinating new look at the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud.
In the nineteenth century, Kentucky was one of the nation's leading producers of racehorses, whiskey, tobacco—and new counties. By 1886 the three original Kentucky counties had been carved into 119 (belated 120th was to be formed in 1912). These small divisions commanded the fierce loyalty of their citizens and for most Kentuckians formed the center of political and community life. The County in Kentucky History shows the bitter strife of countywide feuds and the conviviality of court day, the sporadic outbreaks of ill-feeling between town and country and the high-spirited brawls that regularly accompanied elections. Robert M. Ireland traces the structural changes in county government from the days when justices of the peace made up a self-perpetuating county court to the more democratic period when the buying of votes replaced the buying of offices. The most beneficial change that could come to local government—consolidation into fewer units—Ireland sees as unlikely where the tradition of county loyalties and rivalries remains as strong as it does in Kentucky.
Kentucky's counties though theoretically provinces of the state were in reality powerful semi-sovereign entities during the latter half of the 19th century. Their positive accomplishments were many. Government funds were wisely invested in internal improvements, road construction, law enforcement, tax collection, and relief of the poor. Keen competition for county offices, placed on an electoral basis by the Constitution of 1850, brought added vitality to Kentucky's uniquely intense political life, and the official day on which the county courts met continued to be the foremost social and economic day of the month. Despite these positive facets and the good intentions of the reformers of 1849-1850, however, Kentucky's counties retained a tradition of parochialism, corruption, and inefficiency. The establishment of elective offices eliminated few of the deficiencies of the county system. The railroads were the focus of rivalry and scandal. Prevailing lawlessness compounded the semi-anarchical condition of many of the counties. Rising crime rates rendered insecure the lives of many Kentuckians. Nineteenth-century Kentucky left no legacy of law and order. A grasp of this paradoxical situation is essential to an understanding of late 19th-century Kentucky history. In this probing study, Robert M. Ireland offers the first thorough examination of the impact of Kentucky's counties on the state's constitutional, political, social, and economic development during this period.
Two novels in one book. In Shotz Fired Officer Griffith (Zoo) Park is forced to kill to save his partner's life. The dead man and his half brother were partners in a criminal venture. Vengeance and the Zoo Man's coming too close to uncovering the criminal activity lead to a kidnapping and cross country adventure that tragically ruins the Zoo Man's vacation. In Deadly Wired a low key crime family uses wayward youth to carry out criminal activities under the guise of a social club. As things start to fall apart the police officers work to unravel the crime web to save Capitol City from anexplosive situation. The two novels cover the whole range of human conditions: life and death, sex and violence, humor and pathos.
The first Harper Connelly mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris! Harper Connelly has what you might call a strange job: she finds dead people. She can sense the final location of a person who’s passed, and share their very last moment. Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver are experts at getting in, getting paid, and then getting out of town fast—because the people who hire Harper have a funny habit of not really wanting to know what she has to tell them. At first, the little Ozarks town of Sarne seems like no exception. A teenage girl has gone missing, but the secrets of her death—and the secrets of the town—are deep enough that even Harper’s special ability can’t uncover them. With hostility welling up all around them, she and Tolliver would like nothing better than to be on their way. But then another woman is murdered. And the killer’s not finished yet...
Another acclaimed paranormal mystery series by the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse novels that inspired HBO’s True Blood. These four novels introduce Harper Connelly, a “winning heroine”* who uses psychic skills to help law enforcement provide justice for the dead. “A series that just might surpass all [Harris’s] others in popularity.”—*Booklist GRAVE SIGHT GRAVE SURPRISE AN ICE COLD GRAVE GRAVE SECRET
