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Steve Dancy Tales
Steve Dancy Tales
Series · 6 books · 2007-2017
By
James D. Best
Books in series
#1
The Shopkeeper
2007
In 1879, Steve Dancy sells his New York shop and ventures west to explore and write a journal about his adventures. Though he's not looking for trouble, Dancy's infatuation with another man's wife soon embroils him in a deadly feud with Sean Washburn, a Nevada silver baron. Infuriated by the outrages of two hired thugs, the shopkeeper kills both men in an impulsive street fight. Dancy believes this barbarian act has closed the episode. He is wrong. He has interfered with Washburn's ambitions, and this is something the mining tycoon will not allow. Pinkertons, hired assassins, and aggrieved bystanders escalate the feud until it pulls in all the moneyed interests and power brokers in Nevada. Is a New York City shopkeeper tough enough to survive the Wild West?
#2
Leadville
2009
When New York City shopkeeper Steve Dancy moved west to experience the frontier, he wound up embroiled in a deadly feud...a feud that he was forced to settle with guns. Now, all he wants to do is follow up on a few business interests, write about his adventures, and continue his exploration of the West. But in the autumn of 1879, Joseph McAllen asks Dancy for help. Ute renegades have abducted a young girl near Mesa Verde, Colorado, and the Pinkerton captain wants him to join the rescue party. Surprisingly, the trail doesn't lead into the San Juan Mountains, but to Leadville—a rich mining town teeming with the worst elements of a raw frontier. Bitter feuds, vendettas, and greed turn the affair into a bloody conflict that spans the state. Dancy has proved that he can handle himself in rough mining towns. But can this shopkeeper survive a dangerous mountain wilderness?
#3
Murder at Thumb Butte
2011
In the spring of 1880, Steve Dancy travels to Prescott, Arizona to gain control of a remarkable invention. But on his first night in the territorial capital, his friend, Jeff Sharp is arrested for a midnight murder at Thumb Butte. Dancy launches a personal investigation to find the real murderer, only to discover the whole town wanted the victim dead. For help, he turns to another old friend and associate, Captain Joseph McAllen of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Can Dancy discover the true killer before his friend stretches a rope on the courthouse square?
#4
The Return
2013
It's the summer of 1880, and Thomas Edison's incandescent bulb is poised to put the gaslight industry out of business. Knowing a good business opportunity, former New York shopkeeper Steve Dancy sets out to obtain a license for Edison's electric lamp. Edison agrees, under one condition: Dancy and his friends must stop the saboteurs who are disrupting his electrification of Wall Street. After two years of misadventures out West, the assignment appears to be right up his alley. But new troubles await him in New York City. Dancy has brought a woman with him, and his high-society family disapproves. More worrisome, he has also unknowingly dragged along a feud that began out West. The feud could cost him Edison's backing ... and possibly his life.
#5
Jenny's Revenge
2015
Jenny Bolton has plans, and they don’t bode well for Steve Dancy. Married at fifteen to a Nevada politician, Jenny suffered repeated assaults, witnessed her husband's ghastly murder, buried her vile mother-in-law, and killed a man. Dancy, who had once served as her paladin, rejected her without as much as a goodbye. Abandoned on a raw frontier, she's single-handedly building an empire that spans the state. Despite her triumphs, she feels she never should have been left alone. Soon to marry, Steve is eager to begin a new life unaware that Jenny is mad for revenge.
#6
Crossing the Animas
2017
“Ben Law is tough… and mean. He enjoys taking care of problems for his boss. He won’t just verbally assault you. He and his men will hurt you. Bad.” Steve Dancy is about to find this out. With his new home in Durango, Colorado, the kind with a nice white picket fence, and marriage on the horizon, the last thing Dancy wants is trouble. Especially with a mining tycoon and his henchmen. But this is the frontier … and sometimes a feud finds you. Sometimes, it even chases you. When the quarrel endangers Dancy’s fiancée and friends, he has no choice but to fight. And this is a fight Dancy must win.
Author
James D. Best
Author · 13 books