Rain Valley

by Lauran Paine, Jeff Harding (Reading)

As he so aptly demonstrated in his novel Open Range, which was made into a movie starring Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall, Lauran Paine is one of the West’s most powerful storytellers. In the title novella of this collection, Burt Crownover causes quite a stir when he steals into Rain Valley in the middle of the night. It’s no surprise the ranchers are suspicious. They’ve got a herd of highly valuable cattle and any stranger could be a thief. But is Burt a rustler out to con them, or just the man they need to help protect their stock?

Genres: Westerns

6 pages, Audio CD

First published March 1, 2015

About the author

aka John Armour, Reg Batchelor, Kenneth Bedford, Frank Bosworth, Mark Carrel, Claude Cassady, Richard Clarke, Richard Dana, J F Drexler, Troy Howard, Jared Ingersol, John Kilgore, Hunter Liggett, J K Lucas, John Morgan (many more).

Lauran Bosworth Paine (born February 25, 1916 in Duluth, Minnesota – 2003 in California) was an American writer of Western fiction. Paine wrote over 900 books, including hundreds of Westerns as well as romance, science fiction, and mystery novels. He also wrote a number of non-fiction books on the Old West, military history, witchcraft, and other subjects.

His apprenticeship as a Western writer came about through the years he spent in the livestock trade, rodeos, and even motion pictures where he served as an extra because of his expert horsemanship.

Reviews

[Cheryl A.]

One of my mother's favorite authors so I'm trying. After reading the first of three novellettes that comprise this, I gave up on this volume. Of the remaining ones she owns, only The Mustangers looks a bit interesting to me (beyond the ones I've tried in the past).

March 2026