Book clubs: 10 Questions about ‘Deaf Row’

Does your book club feature a lot of awkward silences? Is the deepest question, “Did you like it?” Tired of meetings that are more about the furniture than the book? Good questions help inspire your members, prompt ideas that might not have already been on their minds before the meeting, and make for a more […]

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New book trailer for DEAF ROW!

Get a taste of the new thriller that suspense superstars Anne Hillerman, CJ Box, and John Lescroart are raving about! Then go pre-order DEAF ROW at your favorite bookstore and get it in your mailbox, e-reader, or audio player on February 14! AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER HERE* WIND CITY BOOKS AMAZON print AMAZON audio KINDLE BARNES […]

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Place matters

For writers who grew up in the West the landscape is unconsciously woven into our storytelling. It’s natural because that’s what we know. And it’s the thing that makes our western regional literature distinctive. This past weekend, I was honored to deliver a keynote speech as the featured guest at the annual Authors Lunch, hosted […]

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A genuine hero

Remember that story about wild man Earl Durand who killed five people in Powell in 1939? The horrible rampage ended partly because of a teenager named Tipton Cox, who wounded Durand at the end. But even more interesting: Tipton Cox grew up to become a pilot in WWII. He was one of two pilots who […]

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Tarzan of the Tetons

In 1939, mountain man Earl Durand went on a rampage. He killed five people during a sprawling chase through the mountains, ending in a daring daylight bank robbery in Powell. A wounded Durand shot himself dead at the end. He had become a national media sensation. So many people wanted to see Durand’s body at […]

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Pixley’s eyes

In 1964, at Jackson’s famous Wort Hotel, two little girls were raped, strangled and bludgeoned brutally with a large rock. .Andrew Pixley, a 21-year-old transient dishwasher, had sneaked into the room through an open window. Convicted and sentenced to die, Pixley asked to be executed in 1965. And his one other request was also granted: […]

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Elvis co-star dies

In 1957. actress Judy Tyler had just wrapped up her first starring movie role, playing opposite Elvis Presley in “Jail;house Rock.” She was heading back East to appear on a CBS game show when she was tragically killed with her newlywed husband in a car crash outside tiny Rock River. She was 24.

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Butch’s mug shot

You already know Butch Cassidy was the most famous outlaw in the infamous Wild Bunch. This is his 1894 mugshot from the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. What you probably didn’t know is that in the late 20th century and even into the early 21st century, the Wyoming Department of Corrections refused to release the famous […]

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Hickok’s assassin

In 1876, not long after he’d shot the famous Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood SD, Jack McCall was in a Laramie bar boasting about the murder. A deputy U.S. Marshal sitting nearby immediately arrested him and tossed him in the Laramie jail. McCall was eventually sent back to face a trial, where he was convicted […]

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Last Wild Bunch outlaw

Wild Bunch outlaw Bub Meeks helped Butch and Elzy Lay rob the bank in Montpelier, Idaho, in 1896. But the pathologically unlucky Meeks was captured and sent to prison. He escaped but was recaptured. He tried to kill himself in prison and was sent to an Idaho insane asylum, from which he successfully escaped. His […]

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Vanished into thin air

In 1934, 21-year-old Olga Schultz married Wyoming oilman Carl Mauger just a few weeks after they met.They spent their honeymoon elk hunting. One day. Carl reportedly left Olga to rest beside the trail while he hunted. When he returned, she was gone. Massive searches ensued but Olga was never found. Runaway bride? Murder victim? Bear snack? […]

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Old West serial killer

In 1868 in the boomtown of South Pass City, Polly Bartlett ran a boarding house … where she reportedly liquored up a couple dozen travelers and poised them with arsenic-laced steaks. A vigilante killed her in jail and she’s buried in an unmarked grave in the town cemetery, which is still there.

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‘Wine of Wyoming’

Prohibition was in full swing in 1928 when Ernest Hemingway came to Sheridan and met an immigrant couple making their own wine in a little house on the outskirts of town. His celebrated short story “Wine of Wyoming” was inspired by them.

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