Showing results by author "Ralph Cotton" in All Categories

When Chicago hitman Ray Dylan started out he was one more young professional struggling to get ahead of the pack. But he knows his world is about to change quickly when he takes on a job for high-level KGB elitist Leonid (The Professor) Volkov, founder of a unique Cuban-Russian spy community operating out of southern Florida. After Volkov double-crosses him and tries to have him killed, Dylan must take on the entire criminal spy operation even as a wild hurricane named Dennis ravages its way up the heart of the Florida peninsula.

Adventure, action and dark humor galore, delivered Ralph Cotton style, in his fictional take on the real-life DEA - FBI joint Operation Swordfish, a covert effort launched by the two agencies in the early 1980s. Meet Eddie Vango - Chicago gambling debt collector for the Outfit, the lovely Leslie Wright, and ex-con Delbert Moss as they make their way through the ranks of South Florida Drug Lords and take a giant share of the underworld’s operating capital while the drug world is busy 'replacing' its leadership.  

Old ways and new clash in head-on confrontation: When journeyman hit man Ray Dylan agrees to look in on Sami Bloom, former mistress of a deceased Canadian crime financier, he realizes he must keep his profession a secret. What he doesn’t realize is how difficult that is now that he has fallen for this warm-hearted beauty. While he struggles with the idea of confiding to her about his secret past, Dylan learns that Sami Bloom has some secrets of her own - and her secrets reach into the upper echelons of the very organization he works for. 

In a hail of thunder and gunfire, Jeston Nash fled a new Orleans billiards hall with a land deed in one hand, a blazing pistol in the other. He'd won his gamble with Quick Quintan Cordell fair and square. But in seconds, violence flared, Cordell lay dead, and Sheriff Pat Garret's voice still rang in Nash's ears...somewhere, someday, they would meet again....Jeston Nash learned about robbery from his cousin, Jesse James. But it was the wild outlaw Billy the Kid who taught him that even a wanted man is just a man. Nash catches up with the kid in a dusty town of drunken bottle-shooters.

Sure, it would've been easy killing Two Diamond Joe with a second shot. No man takes a .44 round square between the eyes and survives. But Jeston Nash only wants his prize horse back from the man, and a fast trail out of the New Mexico badlands. Together again with Quiet Jack, Nash is on a hunt that will take him through unforgiving terrain, a tangle of firebrand beauties, and even into a lawman's trust - before squaring off with most ruthless pack of gunmen ever to rule the desert frontier.

Jeston Nash, Quiet Jack Smith, and a mysterious black man named Big Shod find themselves in the midst of Chief Red Cloud’s war. They come looking to sell some stolen horses to the cavalry and find themselves fighting against outlaws, warriors and the US government - not just for their lives, but for the chance to do what’s right. 

Jeston Nash bears a striking resemblance to his cousin Jesse Woodson James of Clay County Missouri. After killing a Yankee soldier in self-defense, Jeston meets his cousins, Jesse and Frank, and joins them to fight in Quantrill's guerilla forces. Later, after the war, he rides with the James-Younger gang as they invent their special brand of bank and train robbery. All the while, Jeston seeks vengeance against Daniel Zanone of the Free Kansas Militia - the man responsible for the death of his child.

Federal Deputy Sullivan Hart lost his father to ruthless J.T. Priest. Now Judge Isaac Parker sends Hart and his partner, Twojack Roth, to break up Priest's infamous gang and Hart is only too willing to fulfill his duty. With a fortune in the balance and a couple of sharp-eyed bounty hunters at his side, Hart sets out on a trail that will lead to a final showdown.

Federal Deputy Sullivan Hart thinks he has broken up the outlaw organization Los Pistoleros after he arrests its leader, J.T. Priest - the man who killed his father. But Priest escapes from jail and he's determined to rebuild his criminal empire. Only Quick Charlie Sims knows where Priest is headed. And Hart is none too sure he can trust the wily gambler, who has his own debt to settle with Los Pistoleros.

They gunned down his father in cold blood. They are his most elusive enemies, the outlaws known as Los Pistoleros. And they're still at large. But Federal Deputy Hart will not give up the chase...until they hang.

When Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack arrives in Mesa Grande with a few outlaws in tow, he finds the town in chaos. The sheriff's just been shot, and the new deputy - supposedly out in search of the gunman - is acting suspicious. Now it's up to Burrack to sort out who can be trusted and who needs to be put behind bars. But just as he starts putting the pieces together, a new kind of threat descends on Mesa Grande: Scalp hunters ride in - with a band of wrathful Apache warriors hot on their trail.

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack has something of a reputation for finishing what he sets out to do - usually with a shot from his Winchester. He'd been on the trail of five gunmen for days. Then there was four. And he doesn't plan on stopping until every member of the notorious Golden Riders is behind bars or underground. But when a few of the riders escape in a jailbreak, word gets back to gang leader Braxton Kane that his brother fell under the gun of a lawman. Now Burrack is both hunter and hunted.

Trouble follows horse trader Will Summers as soon as he sets foot in Dark Horses, Mexico. A party of men is intent on hanging Summers, believing him to be a horse thief, but not before they take him to their boss - Ansil Swann, the very man Summers is delivering four horses to. Will is saved from the hangman's noose when the men are waylaid by Ansil's beautiful wife, Bailey. Only Bailey has an agenda of her own, one that lands Will right in the middle of a deadly shootout.

Like father, like son. Arizona Territory Ranger Sam Burrack rides the border badlands to Iron Point hoping to capture Ozzie Cord, a mercenary who killed a sheriff back in Mesa Grande. Cord escaped jail once but won't get away this time.... But as Sam nears his prey, the trail of scalped bodies makes it clear that someone else has a vendetta.

Arizona Territory Ranger Sam Burrack knows all too well that criminals don't concern themselves with consequences. So it's no surprise to him when Big Silver's sheriff, Sheppard Stone, makes an enemy of wealthy cattle rancher Edsel Centrila, whose son thinks he's above the law. After Stone refuses a large payoff to let Centrila's son out of jail, Centrila throws all of his money into buying up Big Silver, putting gunmen on every corner, aiming right at the sheriff's office.

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack is a predator lying in wait. He's undercover as an outlaw to infiltrate a pair of vicious border gangs and bring them down. This mission has already had its share of casualties, and if Burrack has his say, there will be more. A cloud of dust rises as four men ride toward the Twisted Hills. The only thing between them and certain death at the hands of the Apaches is Sam, who also wants those men dead.

Sheriff Sheppard Stone once saved the life of Territory Judge Albert Long, but the judge has heard stories of Stone turning into a reckless drunk - stories that are confirmed when Burrack rides into town. Holed up in his office on a days-long whiskey bender, Stone has been terrifying the townsfolk and firing bullets into the street.

When wanted men don't want to be found, they hole up in Agua FrIa, Mexico. Nestled in the twisted hills of the Blood Mountain Range just across the border from Arizona, the town is divided by two ruthless gangs of thieves and killers. On one side stands Texas Red Madson, and on the other is Raymond Segert. Between them stands Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack. He rides into Agua FrIa in the guise of a vicious gunslinger with a plan to ingratiate himself with both gangs - and stir up the bad blood between them into a war that will leave Burrack the last man standing .

The Traybo brothers have a reputation for being gentleman outlaws - the kind who will make polite chatter as they take your life savings. But Ranger Samuel Burrack has no sympathy for those who show poor manners when it comes to obeying the law. He's traveled as far as the Mexican Badlands to pick up the Traybo brothers' ex-cohort, Fatch Hardaway, to lead him to his prey. Burrack isn't alone in his pursuit.

A killer storm - In the dark of night during a raging storm, a criminal is on the loose in the Arizona badlands. His name is Wilson Orez. Half-Apache and a former cavalry scout, Orez is skilled with weapons, seasoned in the desert, and trained to keep a cool head while death lurks all around him. Or when it springs from his own hands. Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack knows the only way to stop Orez is to kill him.