Book
Hard Ride
Hard Ride collects stories set across different phases of the American West, from open-range communities and outlaw country into the early twentieth century. The characters include ranchers, law officers, criminals, performers and women forced to make their own place in communities where violence and reputation can determine who holds power.
The stories vary in scale, but most turn on a moment when an individual must choose between self-interest and responsibility to others. A rodeo clown seeks another chance at life, an outlaw intervenes when ranchers have no effective protection, and determined women confront intimidation and mob rule. Rather than presenting the West as a single heroic age, the collection shows frontier habits and conflicts persisting even as towns, courts and new forms of authority begin to replace them.
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