robust collection of eighteen frontier tales, Half a Pig (and Other Stories of the West), from Spur and Wrangler Award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo, rides hard with a range of fast-action offerings, including the previously unpublished novella, "Trouble at Tall Pine," starring ever-popular Roamer, noble loner forever trying to lose himself in the West. Inside, you'll find the lynching-inspired Spur Award finalist title story, "Half a Pig"; the bone-cold, eye-for-an-eye drama of Will Rogers Medallion Award-winning "Peaches"; the clanking, clockwork gundown of Peacemaker Award finalist "Scourge of the Spoils"; and numerous other critically acclaimed short stories, including the noir-tinged pages of "Snows of Montana" and "Snake Farm." There's the classic Western barroom showdown in "Just Once," the time-travel nightmare of "Been a Long Time," and the brutal hunter/hunted chase novella "Bloodline." The freaky shaman's subterranean rituals in "The Witch Hole" rival the grim comeuppance of a truly bad seed in "Pay the Ferryman." And then there's the mysterious journal of the gritty disappearance of an inveterate rover in "Lucky Tam" ... and so much more. But wait! There's also an eyebrow-raising stack of five bold and brassy adventures of that silent, noble loner, Roamer, and his jug-hoisting mentor, crusty mountain man, Maple Jack, including the heretofore unpublished "Trouble at Tall Pine." Half a Pig and Other Stories of the West is a collection of short stories that is as varied and as surprising as the assortment of bottles lining the mirror-backed bar in Lucky's Gambling Hall and Saloon. Prop a boot, drop a coin, and pick your poison, pard!