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

After spending most of his young life driving cattle from Texas to Nevada, Will Tanner is ready to wash the trail dust from his throat. Maybe it was fate that brought him to the Morning Glory Saloon on the border of Indian Territory - or just plain bad luck - because no sooner does he sit down than three rough-looking characters walk into the bar with vengeance in their eyes, guns at their sides...and fingers on their triggers. The trio's target is the famous U.S. Deputy Marshal Dove who arrested one of their kin - and who's sitting in the bar near Will Tanner.

Smoke Jensen and his adopted son Matt are cooling their heels in Colorado when they are called to the Dakotas. Preacher, the legendary mountain man, is in the midst of a vicious struggle. Someone has kidnapped a proud Indian chief’s daughter and grandchild. When the kidnapping turns to murder, and Preacher vanishes after clashing with a ruthless Union colonel turned railroad king, Matt sets out to infiltrate the Colonel's gang of killers; Smoke seeks out the only honest citizens in the crooked town of Hammerhead.

Heading west to San Diego some honest pilgrims paid 10 men good money to keep their wagon train safe. Soon word comes to Tombstone, where Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves are wearing out their welcome gambling with Wyatt Earp. The wagon train’s guards turned against their charges and headed off to Mexico with six young pioneer girls captive. Everyone knows the tortures of the damned that await the girls in the hellholes south of the border. But only Matt and Sam will do something about it.

There are some things in this world that can't be stopped. Like progress, a moving train, and the American Dream. When the bigwigs in Washington decide to build a transcontinental railroad to the West Coast, they need a man who's just as unstoppable to clear a path through Mexican territory. That man is Jamie MacCallister. Jamie knows it's a tough job. The territory is overrun with Apaches. The Apaches are gunning for a fight. And the first patrol sent in by the president has already been ambushed, kidnapped, and most likely killed.

South Texas, 1854. Regis Royle is determined to turn eighteen-thousand acres of raw prairie into the greatest cattle ranch in the world. But he can’t do it alone. The region is wilder than a herd of mustangs—and crawling with rustlers. Teaming up with the Cattlemen’s Justice Consortium, Regis hopes to stop the rustling and start laying tracks for a new railway. Problem is, the cattlemen—including Jarvis “Bone” McGraw, Regis’s own ranch manager—can’t help but lock horns with the Texas Rangers. And it doesn’t take long for this brewing pot of very bad blood to get a whole lot worse.

William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone present Book 2 in the Man From Waco series.

Ten years ago, the legendary mountain man Preacher taught a violent lesson to eastern bad man Ezra Pease when he ran the outlaw out of town. But Pease and his trail-scum are back - shooting up the Big Empty to nail Preacher’s hide to a tree. Preacher’s riding to teach Pease one final deadly lesson. But he may be too late - because Pease’s vicious dealings have fired up an all-out Indian War. Now, with hard-riding death on both sides, Preacher, along with his old friends Beartooth, Dupre and Nighthawk, are heading straight into lead-flying scalp-smashing hell!

A cattle ranch stalked by the ultimate predator. A heifer gutted and beheaded by razor-sharp claws. A ranch hand crushed and shredded by powerful jaws. According to legend—foretold by Sioux Chief Red Otter—the attacks are an omen of terrible things to come. When a grizzly attacks a man or his property during a blue moon, it is a sign that the bear has been sent from someone on the other side seeking revenge against the man that killed him. And that man—the avenger’s true target—is Hunter Buchanon.

When a band of merciless, murdering thieves raise hell across the territory, three men committed to justice descend upon them like angels of death. And when the guns fall silent and the smoke clears, the Jackals are always the last men standing.

A cattle ranch stalked by the ultimate predator. A heiffer gutted and beheaded by razor-sharp claws. A ranch hand crushed and shredded by powerful jaws. According to legend - foretold by Sioux Chief Red Otter - the attacks are an omen of terrible things to come. When a grizzly attacks a man or his property during a blue moon, it is a sign that the bear has been sent from someone on the other side seeking revenge against the man that killed him. And that man - the avenger's true target - is Hunter Buchanon.

There’s a new stranger in town, and he goes by the name of Lucas Blaine. Some folks say he’s the fastest gun in the West. But Ben Savage don’t put much stock in what folks say—until the killing starts. So far, Blaine has his sights set on just one target: a pretty widow who’s staying with the wife of a Baptist preacher. No one knows what the connection is between the two, but the local sheriff isn’t taking any chances.

It starts with a prison break in Missouri. When notorious bank robber Ansel McCoy busts out, he teams up with five other outlaws. Then he and his gang rob a bank in Kansas. Now they’re crossing state lines into Oklahoma Indian Territory. And that’s where US Marshal Will Tanner steps in.

He’s the most notorious cattle rustler in all of Texas. His name — Jebediah Cotton — strikes fear into the hearts of every rancher in the territory. So it’s more than a little strange that someone would shoot Cotton’s youngest son in the back. Whoever did it is either a coward, a fool, or a crazy man. Whoever did it must die. Even if he’s a US deputy marshal named Will Tanner....

U.S. Deputy Marshal Will Tanner earned his badge the old-fashioned way. He shot the bad guys, saved the good guys, and won the fear and respect of everyone in between. That’s how legends are born. But when he visits a friend at his ranch and ends up confronting a trigger-happy horse thief, Will earns the wrath of the deadliest, lowlife killers west of the Mississippi. This is how legends die....Turns out Will Tanner is nothing but a moving target on a blood-soaked trail of revenge.

At first, the job sounds easy: Lead a small herd of horses across the Arkansas-Texas border to the Double-D ranch near Texarkana. No problem - at least not for a man like Perley Gates. In fact, he's looking forward to the 150-mile journey with his old sidekick Possum Smith and young Sonny Rice, and doesn't expect any trouble along the way.

As winter descends upon Cutthroat County, Ashton Maddox has to rely on a skeleton crew to keep his cattle from succumbing to the dangers of the cold winter months. County Sheriff John T. Drew has his hands full this time of year heading up search and rescue missions for adventurous snowboarders and skiers tempting fate on nearby Always Winter mountain range. When an unexpected blizzard covers the region, Drew finds himself babysitting a vicious gang of prisoners stranded in town. And as the storm triggers avalanches, Drew and Maddox learn their son and daughter are trapped on the mountain.

Sixkiller has come to Ringgold, Wyoming, on the trail of Bart Skillern, a vicious murderer he's been carefully stalking for weeks. But before Sixkiller can strike, Skillern takes a job with the town's duly elected mayor, a politician so corrupt that the only way to get near him is by being even more corrupt. So Sixkiller takes a job as a hired gun and sets out to destroy the mayor's gang from inside out.

In the land of towering mountains and howling winds, the young man named Preacher has found a home. In the wilds, he has learned the rules of survival — and he has killed in order to live. Now, something is forcing Preacher out of his Rocky Mountain range for the so-called “civilized” world. It is the memory of a woman, his first and only true love. It is her blood calling out for revenge.

When gold is discovered near the little town of No-Name, Colorado, the citizens are overjoyed at their good fortune...until trouble gallops down Maine Street on a horse straight out of Hell. For gold's closest companions are greed and murder, and every two-bit gunslick from the Atlantic to the Rockies is beating a path to the gold strike - which is practically on the doorstep of Smoke Jensen. They're looking to get rich quick...and never mind how it's done. But this legendary mountain man never learned how to back away from a good fight - and this one promises to be a whopper.

They were innocent men, slaughtered in the Rockies. A party of land surveyors who met their grisly fate at the hands of the Crow Indians—or so it seems. Some folks think the story is a lie. And now it’s up to U.S. Army Lieutenant Ron Stanton to figure out what really happened up there in those desolate, blood-soaked mountains. As his guides, Preacher and Jamie MacCallister agree to retrace the footsteps of the doomed party—come hell or high water—but first they’ll have to pass through a particularly nasty piece of purgatory known as Fort Buzzard.