Showing results by author "Ralph Cotton" in All Categories

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.

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.

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack is headed for Yuma, escorting Harvey "Cisco" Lang to prison and Adele Simpson to safety. He knows full well of their shared romantic history, and even though Adele swears she's done with Cisco, Burrack is keeping a hard eye on her as well as on the outlaw. But his companions are the least of his worries. A ruthless cattle baron has put a five-thousand-dollar price on Burrack's head - and every low-life bounty hunter and bandit across the Painted Desert is looking to claim it…

Hired to help steal $50,000 in gold bullion, ex-Pinkerton Avrial "Rock" Rochenbach must earn the trust of some of the West's most notorious outlaws-while protecting his true identity as an undercover U.S. Secret Service Agent.

USA Today best-selling author Ralph Cotton pens gun-blazing tales evoking the glory days of the Old West. In City of Bad Men, Lawrence “Fast Larry” Shaw wants nothing more than peace and quiet after miraculously surviving a gunshot wound to the head. But his hopes for tranquility don’t last long. A powerful businessman needs help defending his mining operation from the likes of the Cut-Jaws Gang, and he thinks Larry is just the man for the job.

In Fighting Men by Pulitzer Prize nominee Ralph Cotton, Civil War veteran and former schoolmaster Sherman Dahl rides the Southwest as a gun for hire. Known by both the lawful and the lawless as “The Teacher,” Dahl sells his services to those seeking justice - and is relentless in his pursuit of wanted men.

Will Summers is a horse trader with a reputation that intimidates the most lawless of men. When the coldblooded Bendigo Brothers make off with his horses, they don't know what they're in for. Summers has a history of tracking down animals, and when he finds them he'll be sure to give them his own special brand, and let them live long enough to feel the burn....

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 chaotic blast of gunfire, the James Gang fled a posse's attack—and the infamous Jesse threw his cousin Jeston Nash a hoard of stolen cash. But dodging the law with thirty thousand dollars in a dusty carpetbag is a risky proposition. Hoping to lie low in the mountains of the Northwest, Jeston and his partner, Quiet Jack, find themselves on a journey into the dark heart of human nature—and deadly animal instinct....

Jeston Nash knew horses—he'd stolen enough of them in his time. But the lookalike cousin of Jesse James was going respectable, almost. Then, in a New Orleans teeming with drunks and blue uniforms, he sold a horse to a well-bred lady. It was the biggest mistake of his careers.