Fiddlefoot

A hard-charging tale of oppression and revenge by an award-winning author who helped define the western genre.

Frank Chess didn’t care for much in this world. Especially himself. So taking a job for local big shot Rhino Hulst was an easy choice. Each day drifted into the next: running Rhino’s crooked errands, blowing his meager pay in the nearest poker game, drinking it down in the closest saloon, and handing it over to the next soiled dove. All because Rhino killed a man in cold blood, pinned it on Frank, and now holds the hangman’s rope over him.

And who would give a damn? Frank came into town a drifter—a fiddlefoot, they called him—worth nothing to no one. He didn’t matter.

But none of the townspeople know Frank. Where he came from. What he’s done. And when he finally remembers what it’s like to care about something, they have no idea how much hell he’s about to bring down on them all.

Along with legendary authors like Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour, Luke Short helped transform the stories of the American West from dime-store pulp into a respected and immensely popular literary genre. Originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, Fiddlefoot combines Short’s plainspoken style with the hard-edged authenticity that marks his novels as true classics of western adventure.