The Northern Western, or “Northwestern" for short and "Northern" even shorter, is a Western that takes place in either the Canadian wilderness or the northernmost regions of the United States. The northern arctic locations mirror the inhospitableness of the desert in the American Southwest. Both share extreme temperatures, isolated locales, and dangerous wildlife. These Westerns sometimes replace the American lawmen and sheriffs with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or “Mounties” for short. The same characters and themes found in classic Westerns can still be found in these narratives.
Call of the Wild
Jack Thornton is an adventurer who travels the Yukon in search of gold. Whe he pays $250 for Buck, a sled dog with the strenght of his part-wolf ancestry, Jack's luck changes. A winning $1,000 bet on Buck's stamina is only the first of the rewards that his friendship with the canine will bring. When the pair, along with Jack's friend Shorty, happen upon a woman who's lost her husband in the wild they begin their greatest adventure yet in this rousing tale of camaraderie and adventure.
Rose Marie
Marie de Flor, a glamorous Canadian prima donna, is renowned for her beauty, exquisite voice and fierce temperament. When news arrives that her brother Jack has been wounded in a prison escape, Marie realizes she must go to him despite the danger. Lured into the wilderness, she encounters Sgt. Bruce, who is hunting the fugitive. Sgt. Bruce is soon hot on Marie's trail as well!
The Spoilers
Two adventurers in the Yukon quarrel over land rights and the town's sexiest saloon girl. Cherry Mallotte must choose between the honest captain and the charming-but-no-good kingpin.
The Cariboo Trail
Western icon Randolph Scott co-stars with Bill Williams as cowboys leading a small herd of cattle from Montana to the Northwest territories, one looking for rangeland, the other for gold.
Bend of the River
As a former outlaw turned wagon train guide, Stewart is pitted against warring Indians, murderous hijackers and a traitorous ally as he attempts to lead a group of settlers through the treacherous Oregon wilderness.
The Far Country
Jeff Webster and his sidekick Ben Tatum are two stoic adventurers driving cattle to market from Wyoming to Canada who become loggerheads with a corrupt judge and his henchmen. Ruth Roman is a sultry saloon keeper who falls for Stewart, teaming up with him to take on the errant lawman.
Saskatchewan
While returning from outpost duty, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector O'Roarke happens upon Grace Markey, the sole survivor of a vicious Indian attack. Upon hearing her story, the naive Mounty Commander Benton believes the Cree are on the war path, not realising the Sioux have set up the confrontation in order to gain allies against the U.S. 7th Cavalry. Only O'Roarke knows the truth and must mutiny in order to save his men and the woman he has come to love.
Track of the Cat
While Curt Bridges tracks down the panther that killed his brother Arthur, his family argues and bickers over whether younger brother Harold should marry a much-despised neighbor girl.
Pillars of the Sky
First Sergeant Emmett Bell (jeff Chandler) faces off with Apache chieftan Kamiakin (Michael Ansara) in this nuanced portrayal of racial tensions between Native Americans and white settlers in 1860s Oregon Country. Bell must lead his men and civilian charges on a mad dash to federal sanctuary. --from container.
The Hanging Tree
The story takes place in Skull Creek, a 1870s Montana gold camp. Dr. Joseph Frail arrives, setting out his shingle near the camp's boom-or-bust hubbub of adventurers, ladies of fortune, mountain men and just plain decent folks. As skilled with a six-gun as with a scalpel, Frail will need both. His life will become intertwined with a young Swiss immigrant, a man he saves from a mob, a shifty-eyed miner (Karl Malden) and a hellfire preacher.
Ride the High Country
Two old friends have taken drastically different paths growing up. One is a small-town sheriff; the other has become a burglar, bent on stealing the gold the other is shipping cross-country.
The Great Silence
On an unforgiving, snow swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence stands between the innocent refugees and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent.
Man in the Wilderness
Nothing will stop him now. Not the winter's bitter cold. Not the knife-like stabs of hunger. Brutally wounded mountain man Zachary Bass, left for dead by his fur trapping partners, somehow pushes on. And he's driven by one of the most relentless powers in all nature: revenge. Harris recaptures the ferocity and heroism of his A Man Called Horse. Bass makes a 600-mile journey of vengeance across the 1820s American Northwest, facing every obstacle with a savagery greater than the untamed wilds.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. Shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to help McCabe run his business and the whorehouse thrives. McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. His decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.
Breakheart Pass
A governor, a woman, a group of cavalrymen, and a mysterious man travel on a train through Idaho in 1870. One is actually a murderer.
Death Hunt
Set in the '30s, Mountie Millen (Lee Marvin) is assigned to track down accused murderer Johnson (Charles Bronson), who has escaped in the high passes of the Canadian Rockies.
The Grey Fox
After decades in prison, stagecoach robber Bill Miner emerges in 1901 a free man without a place in twentieth-century society. Times have changed, but in the face of all these changes, neither his good-humored patience nor his joy of life has abandoned him. With the vigor of a teenager, Miner sees a screening of one of the first films, The Great Train Robbery, and is inspired to once again do what he does best.
Ravenous
It's a recipe for nonstop action and excitement when the inhabitants of an isolated military outpost go up against a marauding band of cannibals in a deadly struggle for survival.
Brokeback Mountain
Set against the sweeping vistas of Wyoming and Texas, two young men meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, whose complications, joys, and tragedies provide a testament to the power of love.
Meek's Cutoff
A wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a shortcut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants face the scourges of hunger, thirst, and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When they encounter a Native American, they must choose between following their guide or an 'enemy.'
The Hateful Eight
A stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. Bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive Daisy race toward the town of Red Rock, where Ruth will bring Daisy to justice. Losing their lead on the blizzard, they seek refuge at Minnie's, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie's, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock.
The Revenant
Inspired by true events, an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald. Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption.
The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Set in the vast, desolate plains of Montana, it is an ode to the traditional revenge western. When famed frontier lawman and Montana's first elected senator Eddie Johnson is brutally murdered, his longtime sidekick and friend, Lefty Brown, will stop at nothing to avenge his death.
Wind River
An FBI agent teams with a town's veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.
Let Him Go
Following the loss of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge and his wife Margaret leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson. When they discover that he is in the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, George and Margaret must fight for the survival of their family.
Montana Story
Set against a mythic American backdrop, two estranged siblings return home to the sprawling ranch they once knew and loved to confront a deep and bitter family legacy in this Western with a heart-rending emotional core.
The Dakotas
Marshal Ragan and his deputies maintain the peace in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory.
Klondike
The story centers on the friendship of two adventurers, Bill Haskell and Byron Epstein, as they travel North West during the Klondike Gold Rush. Along the way they must navigate harsh conditions, unpredictable weather and desperate, dangerous characters.
Dominion Creek
As they work the silver mines of Montana, the ambitious Connolly brothers dream of riches and adventure. Seduced by rumors of a greater prize to the north, they embark on a dangerous journey to the heart of the Yukon in this epic tale of greed, love, betrayal, and gold. As they become increasingly corrupted by the lust for power and wealth, the Connollys must stick together if they are to survive the harsh realities of the Yukon.
Blood on the Saddle
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Montana Territory is about to become a state. The Buttons family, among its earliest pioneers, still controls what is known as the Button Reserve. The Omaha & Montana Cattle Company wants that land, and will use fair means or foul to get it.
The Call of the Wild, White Fang, & To Build a Fire
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Generally considered to be London's greatest achievement, The Call of the Wild brought him international acclaim when it was published in 1903. His story of the dog Buck, who learns to survive in the bleak Yukon wilderness, is viewed by many as his symbolic autobiography. White Fang (1906), which London conceived as a "complete antithesis and companion piece to The Call of the Wild, " is the tale of an abused wolf-dog tamed by exposure to civilization. Also included in this volume is "To Build a Fire, " a marvelously desolate short story set in the Klondike, but containing all the elements of a classic Greek tragedy.
Caprice
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WITH A FOREWORD BY ARITHA VAN HERK. It's the mid 1890s in Kamloops, British Columbia. Two men argue over a bottle of whisky and, in the struggle Frank Spencer, an American outlaw-turned-farmhand, kills Pete Foster, a French-Canadian and fellow farmhand. Enter Caprice: a vision and a brain. Almost six feet tall, with flaming red hair and long legs, and toting a lethal bullwhip, she sets out to avenge her brother's murder. Travelling with her beloved black Spanish stallion, Caprice trails her brother's murderer to Mexico and back. Determined and headstrong as she is smart, she leaves an impression on the people she encounters in her journey: Gert, the whore with a heart of gold; Gert's son, for whom she provides affirmation, and not the least Frank Smith, her lover, a teacher and amateur baseball player who wants her to leave the law enforcement to the professionals and marry him. Caprice finally comes face to face with her brother's murderer at Deadman's Falls. First published in 1987 and based on actual events in BC's history, Caprice is a witty, adventurous and colourful recreation of a Canadian heroine's quest in avenging her brother's murder, a woman well ahead of her times, who refused to be pigeonholed into a stereotype, who questioned authority and did so with unflinching resolve. Caprice is a companion to Bowering's Burning Water and Shoot!, reissued by New Star in 2007 and 2008.
Dakota Kill
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After a seven-year absence, Mark Talbot returns to the Dakota Territory looking for a little peace and quiet. But peace isn't what he finds: greedy landholder King Magnussen of the Double-X ranch wants sole reign of the Bench, a fertile and prosperous control in the Dakota Territory. And Magnussen always gets what he wants. When Talbot meets beautiful young Suzanne, King's beloved daughter, he learns quickly that Suzanne always gets what she wants, too. And she wants Talbot. Then there's Jacy Kincaid, the little-girl-next-door, who has grown into a stunning, strong-willed woman, fighting against King and his thugs. Before Talbot can rest his tired bones, he finds himself confronted not only with a land war, but a love war too....
Give-A-Damn Jones
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Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Bill Pronzini debuts a thrilling western with expert storytelling and a mysterious hero who will appeal to Pronzini's Nameless fans. Not all the folks who roamed the Old West were cowhands, rustlers, or cardsharps. And they certainly weren't all heroes. Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He's a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything (or anyone) could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to unlock the town's secrets. Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs.
A Good Man
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In the ambitious and masterful final novel of his bestselling trilogy, Guy Vanderhaeghe, returns to the nineteenth century Canadian and American West to explore the final days of one of the world's last great frontiers. Wesley Case is a former soldier and son of a Canadian lumber baron who sets out into the untamed borderlands between Canada and the United States to escape a dark secret from his past. He settles in Montana where he hopes to buy a cattle ranch, and where he begins work as a liaison between the American and Canadian militaries in an effort to contain the Native Americans' unresolved anger in the wake of the Civil War. Amidst the brutal violence that erupts between the Sioux warriors and U.S. forces, Case's plan for a quiet ranch life is further compromised by an unexpected dilemma: he falls in love with the beautiful, outspoken, and recently widowed Ada Tarr. It's a budding romance that soon inflames the jealousy of Ada's quiet and deeply disturbed admirer, Michael Dunne. When the American government unleashes its final assault on the Indians, Dunne commences his own vicious plan for vengeance in one last feverish attempt to claim Ada as his own.
Holmes on the Range
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1893 is a tough year in Montana, and any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar-VR cattle spread, they're not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, and a comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favorite pastime: scouring Harper's Weekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes.When another ranch hand turns up in an outhouse with a bullet in his brain, Old Red sees the perfect opportunity to put his Holmes-inspired detective talents to work and solve the case. Big Red, like it or not (and mostly he does not), is along for the wild ride in this clever, compelling, and completely one-of-a-kind mystery.
In Alaska with Shipwreck Kelly
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1897 - the last great gold rush More than a hundred thousand raced toward the Yukon and the Klondike - all of them desperate to be first to arrive at the headwaters of the Yukon. Leaving his federal post in Montana, U.S. Deputy Marshall Patrick Kelly becomes a partner in a spectacular enterprise: the disassembly and transportation of Studdsworth P. Blackmore's famous Alhambra gambling casino to Dawson City so the gold stampeders will be able to spend their new wealth in magnificent luxury. When the ship on which he is travelling founders off the Alaskan coast, newspaper reporters give Kelly his nickname. Jack McGowan and his beautiful daughter Lila, aboard their floating gambling palace, the Faro's Daughter, provide a formidable challenge to Shipwreck Kelly and his partners. With a spring thaw setting in on the waterways of the North, the desperate race to be first to the headwaters of the Yukon is on. Cree Indian Louis LeMo and the bateaux men on the Yukon might swing the balance in Kelly's favor.
Johnny Montana
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He's known as Johnny Montana by those who followed him to the Northwest gold fields in the spring of 1863. Now, with a harsh Montana winter about to descend, all Johnny and his partners want to do is go home. And all that stands in their way is a highly organized gang. Others have tried to escape the Redhawk mining district with their summer's cache of gold. None have succeeded. Now they turn to Johnny to get the gold out before the outlaws come for it.
Justice
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In Montana, the Hayden name is law. It carries an aura of privilege and power that doesn't stop at the Montana border. When the Hayden boys, Wesley and Frank, take an ill-fated hunting trip, they learn the implications of the Hayden name, even outside the jurisdiction and on the wrong side of the law. In a series of episodes dating from 1899, Watson invites us to get to know the Hayden family intimately. From the story of patriarch Julian Hayden as he carves a new life out of the Montana wilderness, to the struggles of Gail Hayden, Sheriff Wesley Hayden's spirited wife and moral compass, we learn the stories behind the story of Montana 1948.
The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave
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Bill Pronzini's riveting western mystery, The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave, takes on the modern world with old-fashioned violence--and his Peaceful Valley is anything but... Nothing much happens in Peaceful Valley, Montana. And that's just how Sheriff Lucas Monk likes it. Aside from the occasional drunken brawl or minor disturbance out on the reservation, he hasn't had to resort to his fists or sidearm in years. That is, until mid-October, 1914, when the theft of a wooden cigar store Indian sets off a crime wave like nothing Lucas has ever seen. Teenager Charity Axthelm goes missing, Reba Purvis's housekeeper is poisoned with cyanide Reba is sure was meant for her, and Lucas's gut tells him that this is only the beginning. It's not long before the first corpse shows up, bringing the peace in the valley to a thundering end.
The Poacher's Daughter
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The Poacher's Daughter is an extraordinary story of betrayal and redemption, set within an uncompromising landscape of raw brutality and unimaginable beauty. It is a novel you won't soon forget.In 1885, young Rose Edwards is widowed by Montana vigilantes who hang her husband for an alleged theft, then burn her Yellowstone Valley cabin to the ground as a warning for her and others of her kind to quit the territory. Penniless and illiterate, yet fiercely independent, Rose begins a two-year odyssey to revisit the land of her childhood, a land she once traveled with her father, an itinerant robe trader among the Assiniboines and Blackfeet. But the old ways of the hunter and trapper are disappearing as Europeans flood the ranges with vast herds of cattle. With an aging roan gelding named Albert as her closest friend, Rose finds herself a reluctant hero in an ageless battle, the face of an indigenous population, both native and white, as she stubbornly pushes back against the invading aristocracy.
The Richest Hill on Earth
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In this captivating historical novel, six-time Spur Award winner Richard S. Wheeler turns his storyteller's eye to a clash of towering ambitions in the American West, when the Copper Kings of Butte, Montana, wrestled each other for control of both the "richest hill on earth" and Montana's fledgling government. The city of Butte looks like a cancerous mélange of smoky mine boilers and rudely constructed sheds when newspaperman John Fellowes Hall arrives on a cold spring day in 1892. Butte may be ugly, but it's the place to get rich. It's also a city full of stories--perfect for a journalist looking to make a name for himself. As an employee of mining titan William Andrews Clark, Hall becomes a part of the best story of them all: the fight among the Copper Kings. Butte's three founding fathers were remarkable men with little in common other than ambition. Marcus Daly, a humble Irish immigrant, led the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. His political rival, the formidable William Andrews Clark, a brilliant but vain businessman, bought himself a United States Senate seat. And Augustus Heinze tried to steal the mines, using lawyers and bribed judges, only to be crushed by the Rockefellers.The Richest Hill on Earth captures their struggle as well as the stories of the ordinary people--the miners, their wives and children, the journalists, and even the psychics--trying to make their fortunes in the rapidly-changing West. The Richest Hill of Earth is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Historical Fiction title.
The Sea Runners
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In this timeless survival story, four indentured servants escape their Russian Alaska work camp in a stolen canoe, only to face a harrowing journey down the Pacific Northwest coast. Battling unrelenting high seas and fierce weather from New Archangel, Alaska, to Astoria, Oregon, the men struggle to avoid hostile Tlingit Indians, to fend off starvation and exhaustion, and to endure their own doubt and distrust. Based on an actual incident in 1853, The Sea Runners is a spare and awe-inspiring tale of the human quest for freedom.
Sitka
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Adventurer Jean LaBarge travels to Alaska where he and Helena, a beautiful Russian princess, become involved in winning Alaska from the Russians for the United States.
Sixteen in Nome
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Sixteen In Nome is narrated by young Joe May, an Arizonian who has come to Alaska to "make his stake for a ranch." Joe finds being on his own difficult as he reflects "Sixteen is a bad age for a boy. It is too full of growing and not enough full of strength." Joe's coming of age story in Alaska during the gold rush of the 1890's is an intertwining backdrop to the conflict between Hugh Massey and Arnie Calmont.Massey and Calmont were a legend in the Yukon, partners in all until they clash over a most extraordinary and powerful dog known as Alec the Great, and over a mystery woman, Marjorie, who puts herself up for auction to the highest bidder among the Nome miners. Calmont wins the auction but Massey wins Marjorie's heart, just as he had won Alec's heart when Alec belonged to Calmont.
White Desert
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Page Murdock is a U.S. marshal, cynic, tough guy, and the last man anyone would want on his tail. In White Desert, he pursues a vicious gang into the far north of Canada in winter. To get his men, he must outwit or outmaneuver aggressive, unpredictable bad guys.
