Favorite Western movies/TV shows (in no particular order) High Noon The Magnificent Seven Unforgiven Dances with Wolves Django Unchained No Country for Old Men Shane Godless Lonesome Dove News of the World Deadwood True Grit Longmire Gunsmoke Maverick Bat Masterson Bonanza The Last of the Mohicans Westworld *** Exclusive Excerpt: As Caleb started back along the trail, he stopped short. The braying of the mule and the shouting of Preacher were enough to wake the dead. Caleb ran hard toward the sound. He rounded a bend and saw them in the distance. It was just as he’d feared. The minister was shouting like a madman over the terrified sounds of the mule. His arms were up, and he was waving a branch of evergreen at something Caleb couldn’t see. That branch wouldn’t have done a lick of damage to a newborn lamb. He knew what Preacher was trying to do, though. Caleb was covering ground quickly, but he was still several hundred paces from them. He ran full speed, leaping to avoid protruding rocks and roots. The trail dipped into a wash, and he lost sight of them for a moment. The hoarse shouts of the minister and the continuous…

With summer already headed into the sunset in most locales, we’ll take a look at fiction set in the most famous of “into the sunset” areas–American-set and Western novels.  After decades of tremendous popularity, with the exception of a few movies and books–the “Lonesome Dove” series and remakes of “True Grit”–the genre has been out of favor recently.  But a few new and notable novels would like to reverse that trend. Proceeding chronologically, we begin with 355: THE WOMEN OF WASHINGTON’S SPY RING by Kit Sergeant.  Following the lead of the popular AMC TV show “Turn,” Sergeant presents the intertwining stories of three women who might have belonged to the secret spy ring referred to in Washington’s notebooks.  Meg Moncrieffe returned from boarding school in Ireland to find a colony in revolt.  Though her sympathies were initially with the British, her love for Aaron Burr persuaded her to look at another solution.  Elizabeth Burgin’s loyalties lay strongly with the colonists’ side after her husband died aboard one of the notorious British prison ships.  When a Culper Ring member approaches her, she’s ready to put herself–and her family–at risk to bring down the men who caused her husband’s death.  Initially furious…