Lee Martin

In August of 1844, a man named Leonard Reed takes violently ill at his home near Heathsville, Illinois, and four days later he is dead. The cause? Arsenic poisoning. The suspect? His wife, Betsey. The chief witnesses against her? A hired girl, Eveline Deal, and the local apothecary, James Logan. The evidence? Eveline claims she saw Betsey put a pinch of white powder in Leonard's coffee. Betsey Reed, a woman who dabbles in herbal healing,...

"When she refused me," Charlie says at his trial. "Well, I had that gun. What else was I to do?" Lawrenceville, Illinois, 1952: Jean De Belle, the new high school librarian, is eager to begin the next phase of her young life after breaking off her engagement to Charlie Camplain. She has no way of knowing that in a few short hours, Charlie will arrive at the school, intent on convincing her to take back his ring. What happens next will reverberate...

Clay Darringer finds trouble when he comes across a beautiful, dazed young woman wandering in the desert. Katherine Turner is the sole survivor of an outlaw attack, and once the killers find out she is still alive, her life won't be worth a plugged nickel. Less than an hour after Clay and Katherine reach town, Clay finds himself in the middle of a gunfight and realizes he cannot leave Katherine unprotected - her valuable ranch land is about to trigger...

Ben Darringer is quick and deadly with a gun. That's why beautiful Elena Barker needs his help. Greedy cattlemen are after her ranch. As a hired gun in the midst of an all-out range war, Ben is forced to take justice into his own hands and rely on the only law available to him - the law of the fast gun. The unscrupulous thieves will stop at nothing to get what they want, and some of them want more than rangeland: They want Elena. They must eliminate...

Jess Derringer gets word that the woman he loved and left behind was murdered by five ruthless thugs. Jess is driven to avenge her death. His best lead to the identity of the killers is a receipt made out to a member of the Colby ranching clan. Jess and his younger brother, Sam, infiltrate the Colby Ranch by signing on as gun hands. They soon realize that riding the fence between crooks and good guys is more dangerous than they reckoned on, especially...

When Wes Montana's Arapaho mother is murdered, the hired gun discovers his white father Ray Eastman, who had abandoned them before Wes was born, is still alive, wealthy with family, and may have ordered her death. Swearing vengeance on his own father, Wes yet finds himself on his father's side in the middle of a range war fueled by Eastman's unfaithful wife. Wes likes his half-brother but is afraid of Rosalie, a beautiful Irish orphan, even as the...

Deputy U.S. Marshal Hank Darringer finds the marshal, his mentor, hanging from a tree. He tracks the killers to Prospect, a bounty hunter's paradise, where he's as much a target as the wanted men.

A collection of short stories includes the tale of a man selling faked UFO footage who loses his wife to the promise of the extraordinary and a troubled marriage complicated by a midnight prowler.

"A prolific and award-winning writer, Lee Martin has put pen to paper to offer his wisdom, honed during thirty years of teaching the oh-so-elusive art of writing. Telling Stories is intended for anyone interested in thinking more about the elements of storytelling in short stories, novels, and memoirs. Martin clearly delineates helpful and practical techniques for demystifying the writing process and providestools for perfecting the art of the scene,...