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Playing a Lone Hand
This large print edition features an easy-to-read larger type size while preserving the complete text of the original edition.
A Spur Award–Winning Author
Playing a Lone Hand is a collection of six Western fiction stories. In White City, a stranger comes to a tent city looking for a kidnapped girl. In Buckskin Trail, a cowhand helps a widow find her late husband's killer. In Blood at the Ranch, a young man confronts trouble when his father brings a stepmother and stepbrother to the ranch. In Pearl of Great Price, a detective looks for a girl who has been kidnapped. In Of Emerald Hue, the same detective looks for a teenage girl who may have been kidnapped. In Leaving the Lariat Trail, a man has to defend himself against former associates when he decides he doesn't want to be part of their crooked enterprise anymore.
A Spur Award–Winning Author
Playing a Lone Hand is a collection of six Western fiction stories. In White City, a stranger comes to a tent city looking for a kidnapped girl. In Buckskin Trail, a cowhand helps a widow find her late husband's killer. In Blood at the Ranch, a young man confronts trouble when his father brings a stepmother and stepbrother to the ranch. In Pearl of Great Price, a detective looks for a girl who has been kidnapped. In Of Emerald Hue, the same detective looks for a teenage girl who may have been kidnapped. In Leaving the Lariat Trail, a man has to defend himself against former associates when he decides he doesn't want to be part of their crooked enterprise anymore.
358 pages, Hardcover
Published September 10, 2025
About the author
John D. Nesbitt
157 books20 followersJohn D. Nesbitt is the author of more than forty books, including traditional westerns, crossover western mysteries, contemporary western fiction, retro/noir fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
He has won the Western Writers of America Spur Award four times–twice for paperback novel, once for short story, and once for poem. He has been a finalist for the Spur Award once as well as for the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award twice and the Will Rogers Medallion Award four times. He has also received two creative writing fellowships with the Wyoming Arts Council (once for fiction, once for nonfiction).
John has had a distinguished career as a college instructor, most notably for thirty-eight years at Eastern Wyoming College. He lives in the plains country of Wyoming, where he stays in touch with the natural world and the settings for his work. He writes about lifelike people in realistic situations, people who deserve justice and a fair shake in life.
Recent works include Castle Butte, a young adult novel; Dusk Along the Niobrara, a frontier mystery; and In a Large and Lonesome Land, a CD of western songs for which he wrote all the lyrics.
He has won the Western Writers of America Spur Award four times–twice for paperback novel, once for short story, and once for poem. He has been a finalist for the Spur Award once as well as for the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award twice and the Will Rogers Medallion Award four times. He has also received two creative writing fellowships with the Wyoming Arts Council (once for fiction, once for nonfiction).
John has had a distinguished career as a college instructor, most notably for thirty-eight years at Eastern Wyoming College. He lives in the plains country of Wyoming, where he stays in touch with the natural world and the settings for his work. He writes about lifelike people in realistic situations, people who deserve justice and a fair shake in life.
Recent works include Castle Butte, a young adult novel; Dusk Along the Niobrara, a frontier mystery; and In a Large and Lonesome Land, a CD of western songs for which he wrote all the lyrics.
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