Showing results by author "J. A. Johnstone" in All Categories

Wagon trains carrying immigrants along the Oregon Trail are falling prey to outlaws. Most families surrender their valuables and goods peacefully, but anybody brave enough to resist gets a bullet. The gang's latest victim was a wagon master who sought to protect his charges only to die in the dust. With the blood of good men being spilled and families being terrorized, Preacher and Jamie MacCallister volunteer to escort the next wagon train. Their odyssey across the unforgiving territory takes them through violent storms and into the sights of hostile Indians.

There's serious trouble brewing in the Choctaw nation, and it goes by the name of Tiny McCoy. This small-time cattle rustler is expanding his brand by brewing batches of whiskey in the Chocktaw territory of Muddy Boggy Creek. Tiny and his partner have also turned the illegal brewery into a robber's roost for outlaws, cutthroats, and killers of every bent. Local lawman Jim Little Eagle is under attack and outgunned. But when he sends a wire to Fort Smith asking for backup and the US Deputy Marshal Tanner shows up, Little Eagle knows they're in for one hell of a bloodbath.

Kate Kerrigan has seen the blood-soaked face of war. But nothing has prepared her for the assault on her land that begins with an eviction order hammered onto the door of her family's cabin. Beautiful, cold-blooded Savannah Saint James has her sights set on the Kerrigan property - and 12 of the deadliest hired guns in Texas are ready to back her play. Kate has her sons by her side, a ragtag group of ranchers who don't like outsiders messing with their cattle, and a fighting spirit passed down from her Irish ancestors.

When a wealthy cattle baroness hires Joe Buckhorn to track down her son, it sounds like easy money. But when he learns that the boy has run off with a girl - whose father is the leader of the cattle-rustling Riley clan - Buckhorn's only hope is to infiltrate the gang. Gain their trust. Live the outlaw life, even at the risk of death. There's just one problem: there's more than one gang. The Riley girl may have stolen a runaway boy's heart but the other gangs are stealing the baroness's cattle.

Unlike his brothers Jacob, Sam, and Patrick, Shawn O'Brien isn't content to settle down on the family ranch in New Mexico territory. With his razor-sharp eye, lightning-fast draw, and burning thirst for justice, Shawn is carving out a reputation of his own. As a town tamer, he takes the most dangerous, lawless towns in the West and makes them safe for decent men, women, and children.

Hank Fallon used to be one of the best deputy marshals in the country. Then, he got framed for a crime he didn't commit. Got sentenced to 10 years in a federal penitentiary. And got out early for saving the life of the captain of the guards during a riot. When Fallon is released, a private detective is waiting for him. He wants to put Hank behind bars again - but this time, as an undercover agent....

Reece Quaid doesn't want to be known as "The Man Who Killed Smoke Jensen." But when the legendary mountain man shows up in the middle of a stagecoach robbery, Quaid has no choice but to shoot him. He didn't even know his victim was the famous Smoke Jensen—until he goes through his pockets and finds his papers. That's when Quaid comes up with a plan. Since he resembles Smoke, he'll simply assume his identity. Rob some banks. Hold up more stagecoaches. And shoot anyone who tries to stop him. Soon the whole world will be asking. Has Smoke Jensen gone bad?

Conrad Browning is The Loner, a man on a mission, crossing the country — and crossing a lot of bad men — to rescue his kidnapped young twins. The trail has led him all the way to San Francisco’s perilous red light-district, where a crime lord is the proud father of newly adopted twins. The Loner knows his children when he sees them. But they’re hostage to a brutal, violent mob feud. Then, just when he needs it most, The Loner is no longer alone: He is joined by his own father, Frank Morgan — the most notorious gunman in the West.

Building a ranch takes heart and grit. Smoke and Sally Jensen are more than capable of meeting the challenges of shaping the land, raising the livestock, and establishing their brand. But Smoke wasn’t always an entrepreneur. He’s more apt to settle accounts with a fast draw than a checkbook. And when he learns his old friend Preacher has been ambushed by outlaws, he wastes no time saddling up and hitting the vengeance trail with his fellow mountain men Audie and Nighthawk.

In a twist of fate, Slash and Pecos are riding hard for the law, dispensing justice as they see fit, and determined to watch their final sunset as heroes... not outlaws. His wicked ways mostly behind him, reformed bank robber Jimmy “Slash” Braddock is getting hitched to his sweetheart. But before the honeymoon, Chief U.S. Marshal Luther T. “Bleed-’Em-So” Bledsoe needs Slash and his former partner-in-crime, Melvin “The Pecos River Kid” Baker, to play unofficial Federal mercenaries again—this time saddling up for a trip to Nebraska.

Captain Peter Joseph Kellerman was once a promising career soldier who’d proven his mettle in battle time and again. Now he’s fighting a battle with a whiskey bottle. He’s also in charge of Fort Benjamin Grierson, located west of hell, deep in Arizona Territory’s Mohawk Valley on the arid edge of the Yuma Desert. The men under his command aren’t fit to wear the uniform. Killers, thieves, and ravagers condemned to death but who’ve chosen to serve, holding down the hated Fort Misery.

Like any gunslinger with a bloodstained past, Jon Gage needs to keep moving to stay alive. Too many people know the legend of "Texas Lightning"—and too many people want him dead. Trying to keep a low profile, he stops at a supply post in Utah Territory to stock up before hitting the trail. There, he meets a wagon train of farmers from Kansas doing the same. They seem like good, decent folks, but they're about to make a very bad decision. The route they've chosen leads straight through the Chosen Valley. Which is like walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death . . .

The accidental gunslinger Dooley Monahan has quit wandering and settled down to a farmer's life. But when the itch for adventure gets too strong, he packs up and rides west. Along with his horse General Grant, and Blue, a dog who's too smart for his own good, Dooley rides for the Black Hills to strike it rich in the gold fields of Colorado. But fate has other ideas.

There are a lot of ways a man can end up on a wanted poster. There's the easy way (murder), there's the hard way (robbery), and then there's Dooley Monahan's way (by accident). On the trail west with his trusty horse and dog, the hapless gunslinger stops a hungry bear from making lunch out of the legendary Buffalo Bill Cody. In turn, Cody grubstakes Dooley for the purchase of a silver mine in the lawless, violent boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. But when he guns down three deadly outlaws, the grateful townsfolk pin a sheriff's badge on Dooley. And that's when his luck runs out...

Ever since he left Scotland to start a new life in America, Duff MacCallister has stayed true to the values and traditions of his clan in the Highlands. But as Christmas approaches, he yearns to reconnect with his family - even the ones he hasn't met yet. This year, two of his American cousins - twins Andrew and Rosanna - will be joining Duff for the holidays at the Sky Meadow Ranch. That is, if they manage to get there alive.

The Lucky Lizard is bad luck. Not that the Nevada mine is empty; it’s full of silver. But the man who thinks he owns it fair and square is in for a very unpleasant surprise — a ruthless, hard driving Easterner named Dex Brighton shows up with a seemingly valid claim. Town marshal Frank Morgan has his suspicions and sends for some San Francisco legal eagles. They don’t make it to Buckskin alive....

William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone present Book 52 in the Mountain Man series.

Leaving their Pennsylvania home to forge a new life in the untamed Oregon Territory of 1845, the Colter family is ambushed by a kill crazy gang of cutthroats on the Oregon Trail. Fifteen-year-old Tim Colter manages to escape and hide — only to return and find his parents butchered, his sisters Nancy and Margaret missing, and one last killer waiting for his return.

It's the kind of job Luke Jensen hates. A millionaire mine owner is willing to pay $5,000 to the man who captures the half-breed outlaw Tom Eagle. Normally, Luke would turn down an offer like this-it smacks too much of being a hired gun. But when the millionaire tells him that Eagle is responsible for killing his son, Luke agrees to take on the job. Which means he'll have to take the road to hell itself - a.k.a. Hard Rock, Montana. Hard Rock is supposed to be a ghost town. But when Luke arrives, the ghosts are alive and well - and gunning for his hide.

With a handful of murderous rogues, Captain Jed Foster has run off with four wagons containing new Springfield rifles, bayonets, and ammunition meant to resupply the troops at Fort Bowie in Arizona Territory. Foster plans to sell the weapons to the highest bidder, whether it's Apaches, Mexican revolutionaries, or Confederate veterans who still dream of destroying the Union. But that's the least of Foster's problems. His junior officer, Lieutenant Grat Holden, is coming after him...with the help of an ornery ex-sergeant known as "Hard Rock" Masterson and fiery guerrilla fighter Soledad.