Leigh Greenwood books

Anthologies

Cactus Creek Cowboys Reading Order

Night Riders Reading Order

Seven Brides Reading Order

Standalone Novels

The Cowboys Reading Order

Harold Lowry was born in 1942 and holds degrees in Voice and Musicology from the University of North Carolina. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and published his first novel in 1987 under the pen name Leigh Greenwood through Zebra Books. His writing is grounded in the post-Civil War American West, with an emphasis on gritty heroes, strong heroines, and the specific texture of life on the open range and frontier homesteads.

His two signature series — Seven Brides (starting 1993) and The Cowboys (starting 1997) — built readerships across decades of consistent publication. Seven Brides follows the seven sons of a dysfunctional Virginia family rebuilding in Texas after the Civil War. The Cowboys introduces Jake Maxwell and the orphan boys he takes on for a cattle drive in 1866, with each book following one of those boys into adulthood. Both series became templates for the kind of Western historical romance Greenwood popularized.

He announced his retirement in 2015 with the publication of Forever and Always, the final Cactus Creek Cowboys novel, after nearly three decades and more than fifty books. His backlist remains in print through his publisher and continues to find readers among fans of Western historical romance.