Stefan Rudnicki

As the Baxters make plans to come together for a summer lakeside reunion, the unthinkable happens, the family rallies together, and memories come to light that bring healing and hope during a time when darkness might have the final word.

Bailey Flanigan leaves Bloomington after winning an audition for the ensemble of a Broadway musical in New York City. In order to be closer to his mother in jail, Cody takes a coaching job in a small community outside Indianapolis. But new friends, distance, and circumstances expose cracks in his relationship with Bailey.

Ride, you Tonto raiders: Matt Sabre is a young and experienced gunfighter. When he shoots a man who forces him to draw, to his surprise, the man on his deathbed gives him $5,000 and begs him to take the money to his wife who is alone defending the family ranch in the Mogollons. A combination of guilt, regret, and wanting to do the right thing leads Matt Sabre to make that ride. (First appeared in New Western, August 1949.). War party: A boy on the...

"Mike Hammer is on the case, this time hunting the murderer of his old friend and bootlegger-turned-legit-businessman Packy Paragon. Already torn up buy the disappearance of Velda, his beloved secretary, Mike Hammer carves a brutal path for vengeance. Drinking heavily, his relationships fraying, his behaviour self-destructive, Hammer has to track down Paragon's secret ledger, with the names of every corrupt official in town. With deception everywhere,...

The first invasion of Earth was beaten back by a coalition of corporate and international military forces, and the Chinese army, but China has been devastated by the Formics' initial efforts to eradicate Earth life forms and prepare the ground for their own settlement. The Scouring of China struck fear into the other nations of the planet; that fear blossomed into drastic action when scientists determined that the single ship that wreaked such damage...

With their texts restored to the state of their initial publication in magazines, here are three stories penned by America's favorite Western author.