LibGuides: Spur Awards: Western Traditional Novel (2014- )

SPUR Awards

Best Western Traditional Novel
2014 - Present

2020s

WINNER

Cherokee America by Margaret Verble

FINALISTS:

Friends Call Me Bat by Paul Colt
All Man's Land by D. László Conhaim

WINNER

Like Rum-Drunk Angels by Tyler Enfield

FINALISTS:

All Gods Children by Aaron Gwyn
The Fortunes and Vicissitudes of Stern Whitman by Derek Burnett

The Fortunes and Vicissitudes of Stern Whitman by Derek Burnett
Call Number: FIC BURNE DER FO (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781432868017
Publication Date: 2020-11-18
Prospector Stern Whitman and his little brother, Johnny, have made a once-in-a-lifetime strike high up in the Sierra Nevada. But once word of their claim gets out, their camp is overrun by a motley selection of fellow miners hoping to get in on the action. When one of their number is murdered, the little makeshift community devolves into two hostile factions accusing two very different suspects of the crime. So Whitman takes it upon himself to cross over the mountains and fetch back a "by-God Placerville judge" to hold an inquest and keep the peace. Accompanying Whitman on this quest are Stormy Isaac Ford, a slovenly ruffian with a reputation for violence; one of the camp's two mysterious laundresses who are known only as the Blackfoot sisters, and a self-righteous, haughty missionary and his dangerously voluptuous wife. What follows is a rollicking picaresque adventure, with Indian attacks, staggering reversals of fortune, love, betrayal, shamelessly tall tales, and a succession of colorful encounters with claim-jumpers, throat-slitting lawyers, heartbroken murderers, and even a horse hellbent on supporting the temperance movement.

WINNER

The Loving Wrath of Eldon Quint by Chase Pletts

The Loving Wrath of Eldon Quint by Chase Pletts
Call Number: FIC PLETT CHA LO
ISBN: 9781942645948
Publication Date: 2021-09-14
1883. The widowed father of two on the frontier Dakotas, Eldon Quint moves through the world leaving as mild a footprint as possible. His twin brother Clayton Quint is known to most as Jack Foss, a violent outlaw whose visage is prominently displayed on handbills across the American west. When Eldon is mistaken for Clayton, his son Shane is killed in the crossfire. Wracked by grief, the quiet farmer has two aims: to bury his son next to his dead wife in Springfield, Missouri-- and to get revenge on his outlaw brother.

FINALISTS:

Deputized by T. L. Davis
The Comanche Kid by James Robert Daniels

WINNER: The Secret in the Wall : a Silver Rush Mystery by Ann Parker

The Secret in the Wall (Silver rush mysteries #8) by Ann Parker
Call Number: FIC PARKE ANN S8 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781464214943
Publication Date: 2022-02-15
San Francisco music store owner Inez Stannert agrees to provide financial assistance to boardinghouse proprietor Moira Krause. When the common wall of the abandoned house adjoining Moira's is breached to expand her business, the corpse of a murdered man tumbles out, along with a worn canvas bag holding a fortune in gold coins. Then the locksmith who made the house's unbreakable locks is brutally slain, and the keys vanish. Inez and private detective Wolter Roeland de Bruijn set out to uncover the truth behind the killings.

FINALISTS:

All My Sins Remembered by Peter Brandvold
A Man Called Justice by John Deacon
The Wonder Stone : and Other Stories About an Early African Settlement in Central Texas: March 1845-November 1864 by Butch Denny

All My Sins Remembered : classic western series (Bloody Joe Mannion #5) by Peter Brandvold
Call Number: FIC BRAND PET B5 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781639778751
Publication Date: 2022-10-11
When the big, savage bounty hunter, Ulysses Xavier Lodge comes to town wanting to spark one of Jane Ford's pretty doxies at the San Juan Saloon & Hotel, Jane and two bouncers give the bear-like giant the bum's rush. Incensed, Lodge returns to the parlor house and shoots Jane three times in the chest. Jane and Bloody Joe had been on the outs, their marriage dissolved, but now with Jane's life teetering on the edge, Joe realizes how much he really loves the pretty redhead and what a fool he was to let her go. Enraged and knowing he can do nothing for Jane in town--she's in a deep coma and only time will tell--Joe takes to the vengeance trail, shadowing Lodge high into the Sawatch Range. Bloody Joe has faced some formidable foes, but none like Ulysses Lodge. With a snowstorm bearing down, Joe and Lodge go head-to-head in the high, stormy rocks where an angry wildcat might just have the final say. Meanwhile, Henry McCallister finds himself falling in love with a pretty schoolteacher who is several years his senior. However, Grace Hastings is not whom Henry thought she was, and soon Henry and his former sweetheart, Molly Hurdstrom, find themselves hunting lost treasure and fighting for their own lives.
A Man Called Justice : a classic western series with heart (Silent Justice #1) by John Deacon
Call Number: FIC DEACO JOH S1 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9798813127960
Publication Date: 2022
Justice is a drifter with no fear and no memory, trailed by a violent past. Nora is a beautiful widow bravely raising her young son on an isolated New Mexican ranch. When a ruthless cattle baron pushes longhorns into the valley, Justice vows to protect Nora and her boy. But how can he succeed against thirty hired guns... including the four outlaws who left him for dead?
The Wonder Stone : and other stories about an early African settlement in central Texas : March 1845-November 1864 by Butch Denny
Call Number: FIC DENNY BUT WO (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 1540835553
Publication Date: 2022
A progressive white owner and his many slaves migrated from the Deep South to a new, “slave-friendly” country, the Republic of Texas, looking for a fresh start, but soon after they made their difficult journey, Texas became the 28th state in the United States and then angrily seceded just sixteen years later. The new community was overtaken by chaotic events in the controversy and privations of early nation building, statehood, angry secession, and an inevitable Civil War. Despite declining finances, dependence on weather, and worry about bandits and Comanche raids, the farm at Taylor Creek struggled to survive. Sometimes prosperous, sometimes not, the white man tried to see everyone fed, while all learned to get along, white and black. This is an account not only of the man’s business dealings, but the African-American slaves’ participation in the shifting circumstances of early Texas history.

WINNER: Aesop's Travels : a Crackerjack Tale of the Old West by Daniel Boyd

Aesop's travels by Boyd, Daniel
Call Number: FIC BOYD DAN AE
ISBN: 9781957010304
Publication Date: 2023
He had the mind of a child and the hands of a killer! ... They rode out with Aesop on a journey of murder and revenge, the bartender, the old scout, the outlaw, the gambler... they rode with Aesop to stop him from killing again!

FINALISTS:

Grizzly Moon by Patrick Dearen
Jane Fury by James Robert Daniels

Jane Fury by James Robert Daniels
Call Number: FIC DANIE JAMR JA
ISBN: 9781957868424
Publication Date: 2023-01-30
It's been years since the brutal ordeal that earned teenage Jane Fury the nickname The Comanche Kid. Her violent, tragic past is a secret now, one she's tried to forget herself. But then a simple, chance encounter in a small, Texas town brings it all back in ways she never expected. To save everything and everyone she holds dear, Jane straps on her guns again and rides into Mexico with an inexperienced posse, a handful of Texas Rangers and her head-strong 15 year-old daughter. It's an epic journey that will push Jane to the limits of her endurance, her brutality and her compassion... and force her to discover who she really is.

2010s

WINNER

Crossing Purgatory by Gary Schanbacher

FINALISTS:

Destiny Made Them Brothers by Andrew J. Fenady
The Hardest Ride by Gordon L. Rottman

Destiny Made Them Brothers [E-Book] by Andrew J. Fenady
Call Number: FIC FENAD ANDJ DE Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780786030705
Publication Date: 2013-02-05
They met on the battlefields of Vicksburg. General Ulysses S. Grant, George Armstrong Custer, and the Rebel Johnny Yuma. Three men united by fate — in a nation divided by war — they were dedicated to freedom, driven to extremes, and destined for greatness.... Of the three, Johnny Yuma was the most elusive. A Confederate soldier during the war, he was about to play a key role in Grant’s victory for the Union, Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, and Custer’s deadly campaigns in the West. With a ready finger on the trigger, and a steady aim on both sides of history, his life is the stuff of legend. But the truth has never been told — until now.... The story of three heroic men — two Yanks, one Rebel — and the epic fight for America.
The Hardest Ride by Gordon Rottman
Call Number: FIC ROTTM GORL HA (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781502720559
Publication Date: 2014-10-04
Out of work cowpoke Bud Eugen comes across Marta, a mute sixteen-year-old Mexican girl whose family has been killed by Indians. Bud reluctantly takes her along, even though he's never had to accommodate another person in his simple life. He's unable to find anyone willing to take her. In spite of his prejudices, Bud grows to like the spunky girl (and her excellent cooking). Eventually, they both find work on a border ranch. Here, the relationship between the girl and the young cowboy hesitantly grows. But banditos raid the ranch, kidnapping the rancher's daughters and Marta. Bud, with twelve other men, pursue the banditos into the most desolate reaches of Mexico. Ambushes and battles with banditos, Rurales, and traitors are constant, and the brutal weather is as much a threat as the man-made perils. Life and death choices are made at every turn as one side gains the advantage, then the other. The rancher's daughters are rescued, and the exhausted party turns back. But Bud presses on alone, against insurmountable odds, determined to fulfill an unspoken promise to Marta.

WINNER

The Big Drift by Patrick Dearen

The Big Drift by Patrick Dearen
Call Number: FIC DEARRE PAT BI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780875655703
Publication Date: 2014-08-18
Will Brite is a Slash Five cowboy working in the Middle Concho region of Texas in the winter of 1884 when a blizzard descends upon him-the likes of which he has never seen. Trapped under his horse and entangled in a barbed wire fence, Will finds an unexpected (and unwelcome) savior in the form of Zeke Boles, a former slave on the run from a bloody, guilt-filled past. In Zeke's dark features Will sees a reflection of the haunting memories he has been trying to escape for so long, but he reluctantly offers him shelter for the night at the Slash Five camp. Little does he know that.

FINALISTS:

The Poacher's Daughter by Michael Zimmer
Dance with the Devil by J. D. March

WINNER

The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas

The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas
Call Number: FIC DALLA SAN LA (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250074461
Publication Date: 2015-09-29
It is 1880 and Gracy Brookens is the only midwife in a small Colorado mining town where she has delivered hundreds, maybe thousands, of babies in her lifetime. She is a gifted and important resource for the women of her hardscrabble community, a position earned through wisdom and trust. Most women in Swandyke couldn't even imagine getting through their pregnancy and labor without Gracy by their sides. But everything changes when a baby is found dead...and the evidence points to Gracy as the killer. Gracy knows she didn't commit the crime. But her innocence isn't quite that simple, either. She knows things and that's dangerous.

FINALISTS:

The Long High Noon by Loren D. Estleman
Buell: journey to the White Clouds by Wallace J. Swenson

WINNER

The Mustanger and the Lady by Dusty Richards

The Mustanger and the Lady by Dusty Richards
Call Number: FIC RICHA DUS B2 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781633731073
Publication Date: 2016-01-22
Vince is a mustanger with a solitary camp high in the Hondo Mountains, where he works his operation alone. He likes it that way. Then, on a trip back from selling some mustangs, he comes across Julie, a saloon girl on the run from some bad hombres, two killers with cold eyes...Before he knows it, her fight is his fight, and he's looking forward to a life with her. They just have to survive a small war first.
The Mustanger and the Lady [Kindle] by Dusty Richards
Call Number: FIC RICHA DUS B2 Kindle (Request at circulation desk)
ISBN: 9781633731073
Publication Date: 2016-01-22

FINALISTS:

The Contractor by James C. Work
News of the World by Paulette Jiles

News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Call Number: Fiction J62n (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9780062409225
Publication Date: 2016-10-04
In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows. Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember--strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become--in the eyes of the law--a kidnapper himself.
News of the World [E-Book] by Paulette Jiles
Call Number: FIC JILES PAU NE Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780062409225
Publication Date: 2016-10-04
News of the World [streaming audiobook] by Paulette Jiles; Grover Gardner (Read by)
Call Number: FIC JILES PAU NE Audiobk (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780063041554
Publication Date: 2020-08-25

WINNER

Silver City: a novel of the American West by Jeff Guinn

Silver City by Jeff Guinn
Call Number: FIC GUINN JEF M3 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780399165436
Publication Date: 2017-01-24
Cash McLendon faces stone-cold enforcer Killer Boots in an Old West showdown, in New York Times-bestselling author Jeff Guinn's riveting follow-up to Buffalo Trail. Cash McLendon, reluctant hero of the epic Indian battle at Adobe Walls, has journeyed to Mountain View in the Arizona Territory with one goal: to convince Gabrielle Tirrito that he's a changed man and win her back from schoolteacher Joe Saint. As they're about to depart by stage for their new life in San Francisco, Gabrielle is kidnapped by enforcer Killer Boots, who is working on orders from crooked St. Louis businessman Rupert Douglass. Cash, once married to Douglass's troubled daughter, fled the city when she died of accidental overdose--and Douglass vowed he'd track Cash down and make him pay. Now McLendon, accompanied by Joe Saint and Major Mulkins, hits the trail in pursuit of Gabrielle and Killer Boots, hoping to make a trade before it's too late.
Silver City [E-Book] by Jeff Guinn
Call Number: FIC GUINN JEF M3 Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9781101623268
Publication Date: 2017

Spur Awards

2020s

WINNER

Cherokee America by Margaret Verble

FINALISTS:

Friends Call Me Bat by Paul Colt

All Man's Land by D. László Conhaim

WINNER

Like Rum-Drunk Angels by Tyler Enfield

FINALISTS:

All Gods Children by Aaron Gwyn

The Fortunes and Vicissitudes of Stern Whitman by Derek Burnett

WINNER

The Loving Wrath of Eldon Quint by Chase Pletts

FINALISTS:

Deputized by T. L. Davis

The Comanche Kid by James Robert Daniels

WINNER: The Secret in the Wall : a Silver Rush Mystery by Ann Parker

FINALISTS:

All My Sins Remembered by Peter Brandvold

A Man Called Justice by John Deacon

The Wonder Stone : and Other Stories About an Early African Settlement in Central Texas: March 1845-November 1864 by Butch Denny

WINNER: Aesop's Travels : a Crackerjack Tale of the Old West by Daniel Boyd

FINALISTS:

Grizzly Moon by Patrick Dearen

Jane Fury by James Robert Daniels

2010s

WINNER

Crossing Purgatory by Gary Schanbacher

FINALISTS:

Destiny Made Them Brothers by Andrew J. Fenady

The Hardest Ride by Gordon L. Rottman

WINNER

The Big Drift by Patrick Dearen

FINALISTS:

The Poacher's Daughter by Michael Zimmer

Dance with the Devil by J. D. March

WINNER

The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas

FINALISTS:

The Long High Noon by Loren D. Estleman

Buell: journey to the White Clouds by Wallace J. Swenson

WINNER

The Mustanger and the Lady by Dusty Richards

FINALISTS:

The Contractor by James C. Work

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

WINNER

Silver City: a novel of the American West by Jeff Guinn

FINALISTS:

Slate Creek: journey to the White Clouds by Wallace J. Swenson

Huck Out West: a novel by Robert Coover

WINNER

The Return of Kid Cooper by Brad Smith

FINALISTS:

The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm

Born to the Badge by Mark Warren