The Hanging Man & Other Western Stories

<p>Bill Pronzini has been writing westerns throughout his long and varied career and this volume collects the author's best. </p><p></p><p>Here are stories peopled by such familiar figures as lawmen ranchers cowhands gamblers detectives newspapermen gunfighters and timberjacks; and by such less utilized characters as stable hands ferry tenders writers bartenders saddle makers tramp printers confidence men traveling dentists moonshiners and patent medicine drummers. </p><p></p><p>Here are stories set in small imaginary Montana towns and ranches to actual locales such as the California Mother Lode the Sacramento River delta and the Oregon wilderness.</p><p></p><p>Here are stories that run the gamut from dark character studies to stories of action mystery and adventure to lighthearted tall tales. </p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Burglarproof features John Quincannon the male half of the 1890s firm of Carpenter and Quincannon Professional Detective Services. McIntosh's Chute tells of the hardships faced by a deep woods logging gang and the fitting vengeance they enact on its tyrannical leader. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Crucifixion River is a collaborative novella set in and around a delta slough ferry crossing and earned Pronzini and his wife Marcia Muller a 2008 Western Writers of America Spur Award for the best short fiction published the previous year. </span>A new story A Cruel and Deadly Winter shares a dying man's thoughts as he contemplates the life he leaves behind. </p><p></p><p>And then there's The Hanging Man...</p>