Westerns: The Spur Awards 2025

Vivienne Le Coudy is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen. After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries. Alfred's violent, wayward son Weston aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become. Both a tragic love story and a nuanced depiction of the conflict between revenge and forgiveness, The Dead Don't Hurt is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.

"A decade before the legendary Gunfight at OK Corral, there was a much bloodier showdown with a much bigger body count--and Wichita Herald reporter Cindy Bagwell was there to see it all. At first, the fledgling journalist had no idea why her boss would send her to what hardly even passes for a town. But Texans, including trail boss Gary Hardee and his sons, are bringing longhorns to Kansas. And Newton aims to take over the cattle market. Hardee has his hands full--and that's before he reaches Newton, where Texans and Kansans don't get along. Tensions escalate from fisticuffs to brawling to fatal shootings in short order. But that's just a warm-up. On August 19, 1871, in a gambling room at Tuttle's dance hall in Hide Park, this powder keg of bad blood and bitterness between two rival groups explodes--with one young reporter, a restaurant owner, and Hardee's sons caught in the middle" --

"His Crow name was Crazy Wolf. Orphaned after losing his family in an Indian attack, young Cody Hunter found a loving home among the Crow people--and learned the ancient ways of the Crow trackers. His well-honed skills earned him a place in the U.S. Army as a valued scout. But now, after fifteen years of living his life as Crazy Wolf, Cody is ready to face his painful past. He will return to the place that still gives him nightmares--and where the dreams of his father ended in bloodshed. High in the mountains of Montana, Cody finds a stone memorial erected by the survivors of the families slaughtered there. The site of the attack triggers Cody's darkest memories--and leads him to a stunning realization: his father and two brothers did not die on that day. They may still be alive. And he will stop at nothing to find them again. To follow in their footsteps. To track them down on the treacherous journey west. A search this deadly may be the craziest thing Crazy Wolf has ever done. But he is a born Hunter--and he's willing to die that way" -- Provided by publisher.