Showing results by author "William W. Johnstone" in All Categories

Young James Mann came from Texas to find his missing uncle in the lawless Indian Territory. Then the boy's father came after him. Now they've earned the wrath of the vicious McCoy-Maxwell gang, who are about to pull off their most savage attack. But the Manns of Texas have a secret weapon: Deputy Marshal Jackson Sixpersons.

Preacher is heading home to the mountains when he’s approached by a wealthy European with an unusual proposition. He wants the legendary mountain man to track down his missing cousin—a reckless young woman who fled to America with her lover—and he’s willing to pay a small fortune to find her. Preacher isn’t one to get mixed up in the affairs of fancy foreigners, but he reluctantly agrees. The search is on. Striking westward from St. Louis, Preacher quickly begins to suspect that this search party is doomed. And this trail will lead to some very dead ends.

Business is booming in Chirichua Junction, on the edge of a great northern river basin. But with cattlemen lined up against sheep men, the land has turned into a war zone and the town constable is a dirty as they come. Fresh from a violent confrontation with a fellow manhunter, Frank Morgan is called to Chirichua Junction by his old Civil War commander - and arrives just as an angry rancher is taking the law into this own hands. Suddenly, good men and bad are poised to kill.

The Wyoming tinderbox of Muddy Gap is feeling none too friendly ever since the Grubbs gang tore through on a hellraising rampage. And it's far from over. Because what the vicious Utah Jack Grubbs would really kill for just rode into town: Smoke Jensen...and a small fortune in rawhide.

Three weeks before Christmas, the little town of Chug Water in Wyoming Territory is stunned by a brutal crime. The mayor's family has been slaughtered in cold blood on their ranch outside of Raw Hide Butte. As the townsfolk gather to pay their last respects, Duff MacCallister saddles up to go after the killers. He returns with two outlaws - a cold-blooded, nasty pair of snakes, Jesse and T. Bob Cave. But the day before they're sentenced to hang, the Cave brothers escape their fate...

They call him Preacher. And they call him when they need help. Now, a Mexican brother and sister have asked the legendary frontiersman to accompany them into the Sangre de Cristo mountains - to find a missing family fortune of gold and silver. In a land stained by cruelty and war, the Spanish treasure has drawn the interest of a treasure hunter with ruthless paid killers as his partners. And by the time Preacher finds the bounty, bullets have begun to fly. No gunfight will ever scare Preacher. But betr

Robber baron Clifton Satterlee is in greedy pursuit of a coveted piece of land in the New Mexico Territory. He plans to wrest the timber-rich hills from the Tua Pueblo and then populate the town with his own subservient labor force. Many will suffer as his thirst for blood equals his lust for wealth and power. But Saterlee has overlooked one mighty obstacle - the iron justice and deadly aim of the legendary mountain man Smoke Jensen. In triumph blood will be spilled....

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.

In all the horrific corners of the Civil War, there was no hell worse than Andersonville, the Confederate prison camp. Less infamous but equally inhumane was a Yankee prison camp run by General Thomas Wainwright. In the war’s aftermath, a survivor of Wainwright’s cruelty summons Joe Buckhorn to New Orleans, and asks the gunslinger to kill the general — not simply for revenge, but to stop another atrocity.

When a wealthy cattle baroness, Pamela Danvers, hires gunslinger 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 gang — Buckhorn’s only hope is to infiltrate the gang.

Lee Slater and his gang of lowlife desperadoes didn't know that Smoke Jensen had given up his gunslinger status to become a family man. Stirring up a motherlode of trouble was their first mistake. Shooting Smoke's wife Sally was their second. Chances are, they're not going to live to make a third.

Smoke Jensen sat in a cave and boiled the last of his coffee. He figured he was in Idaho - somewhere south of Montpelier - but he was certain about only two things: He was cold and he was being hunted by a small army of men. Smoke knew why he was cold - it was winter. He just didn't have a clear idea of why anyone was after him.

Duff MacCallister fled the Scottish Highlands for a new world in Wyoming Territory. Betrothed to a good woman, Duff has the bad luck to be standing in the Chugwater Bank when a violent robbery explodes around him. With one man dead by Duff's gun, and another under arrest, a team of bandits swarms outside of town. As witnesses, Duff, a banker, and a beautiful barmaid are whisked into the town's hotel for safe-keeping as the outlaws threaten the defenseless town with a bloodbath if their fellow bandit isn't set free. Except no MacCallister has ever run from trouble.

In Dale, Colorado, any cowboy with good sense knows better than to step through the batwings of the Plowshare Saloon - and any sheep-herder crazy enough to belly up to the bar at the Red Dog is ordering the last taste of whiskey he’ll ever lift to his lips. The town of Dale is heading for an all-out war that will pit father against son and brother against brother.

When Frank Morgan sets up camp in a lush valley in Montana, the last thing he expects to see is fires lighting up the night sky as fields, farms, and homes are torched by gunslicks hired by two powerful ranchers. For the ranchers, the battle lines have been drawn in the form of newly settled farmland that's cutting through the ranges, separating cattle from grazing land and water. But the settlers are breaking no law and no one is going to prevent them from building their homes and becoming a real town.

In California, Frank Morgan nearly found a home. But now he’s pulled up stakes and hit the road again, aiming to reach the high desert of Arizona. For Frank, the plan changes when he steps into a saloon in a dusty boom town called Los Angeles. That’s where he learns that his nemesis, Val Dooley, has found a new business: the selling of young women into prostitution, with the victims as young as 12 years old and the survivors ending up drugged and beaten.

In 1866, the border between the U.S. and Mexico is a hotbed of gunrunners, mercenaries, and the Emperor of Mexico's spies, saboteurs and double agents. On top of which, West Texas is plagued by Comanche warriors. Into this mix ride two massive gangs of the meanest, most kill-happy bunch of bloodthirsty ravagers to ever draw a breath. Sam Heller and Johnny Cross have got the marauders in their sights, but they aren't ready for the slaughter and destruction the raiders unleash on Hangtree County.

Cotton Pickens made it through fifth grade. That and a tin star were good enough to make him the sheriff in the boomtown of Doubtful, Wyoming. And Doubtful's name is no accident. The saying around town is, "If you're a lawman, it's doubtful you'll last a day." Spoiled, brash King Bragg is going to hang for the murder of three men in a barroom. But King's arrogant father - and his beautiful sister - use their powers of persuasion to convince Cotton to look into the shooting.

Smoke Jensen's daughter, Denny, can outride, outrope, and outshoot any man who gets in her way. But being a pretty woman, Denny sometimes attracts the attention of unsavory suitors. Like the lecherous Count Malatesta. Denny met the seductive Sicilian on her trip to Europe - and almost fell head over heels for the swindler. What's he doing in America? Seems the heartbreaking hustler has huge gambling debts to pay off - and a deadly scheme to scam money out of the Jensens. But Denny's got a plan, too - to shake off this silver-tongued stalker no matter what it takes.

Calvin Amadeus James, aka Calamity, isn't an outlaw like his notorious brothers Jesse and Frank. He's worse—due to the bad luck that follows him everywhere he goes. Every job he takes—from army scout to gambler to cowboy and rail worker—ends in catastrophe. No matter what he does, Calamity James always seems to be on the wrong side of history.