Showing results by author "William Johnstone" in All Categories

For renegades and pioneers, there is no place like Texas - as long as you have a gun and the guts to use it. Now, the Civil War is over. Carpetbaggers and scalawags rule Austin. Soldiers return to pillaged homes. Longhorns roam the wilds and the state is in chaos. Especially in a town called Hangtree. Sam Heller and Johnny Cross are Hangtree’s newest citizens: Heller is a former Yankee soldier, a deadly shot, and a believer in right from wrong.

Cotton Pickens is feeling about as low as a man can get. Held up, robbed, and fired from his job as sheriff, things get even worse when someone murders Cotton's horse Critter. And it's all happening just as a flashy, fleshy stage company comes to town. Some folks demand the show be shut down for immorality. Some folks - Cotton included - sure enjoy the proceedings. But when a man gets stabbed to death, a bank safe gets blown up, and another county's sheriff starts imposing his will, Cotton realizes that a dastardly plot is taking over Doubtful.

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.

They are strangers in a strange land - a band of German immigrants trespassing across the Jensen family spread. Led by a baron fleeing a dark past in Germany and accompanied by a woman beautiful enough to dazzle young Matt, the pilgrims are being pursued by a pack of brutal outlaws hungry for blood, money - or maybe something else…. The Jensens are willing to help the pioneers get to the promised land in Wyoming. But they don’t know the whole story of their newfound friends, or who the outlaws really are.

Outlaws had smashed his life, left his wife dying, and carried off his son. Now all Frank Morgan wants is to hang up his guns and settle down in peace. But all that changes when he rides into the middle of a Montana range war, where a valley has been ripped apart by hatred and fears...and where his legend proves to be as dangerous as his gun. The blood of innocent men, women, and children has been shed. On one side is a small army of ranchers; on the other a stubborn band of farming families.

As both a prisoner and an undercover operative, US Marshal Hank Fallon has faced down some of the most vicious, terrifying, cold-blooded thieves and murderers in the West. Now, Hank is finally free, and he's got no intention of setting foot inside a jail ever again. But the new federal prison being constructed in Leavenworth, Kansas, needs a warden, and Hank is the right man for the job. He's got the scars to prove it - and to keep the peace. But keeping these lawless hornets in their nest is no easy feat.

Framed for the murder of a rancher, Smoke Jensen must escape the angry lynch mob out for his blood, win the trust of the widow of his supposed victim, and clear his name by exposing the land-hungry killers responsible for the crime.

Preacher and Hawk ride out of the Rockies and into St. Louis, loaded with furs. It’s Hawk’s first trip to civilization and the moment he lays eyes on young Chessie Dayton, he’s lost in more ways than one. When Chessie unwisely signs on for a gold-hungry expedition into the lawless mountains, Hawk convinces Preacher to trail the outfit because they’re all headed straight to the sacred Indian grounds known as the Black Hills — a land of no return. To come out of it alive a lot of people will have to die.

Smoke Jensen drives a herd of longhorns to Dodge City, and finds a town in the grip of terror - its only lawman outgunned by a cutthroat gang led by the West's most notorious outlaw. His name is "Bloody Bill" Anderson, a Confederate guerrilla whose violent career as a gunhawk has earned him a deadly reputation. Now he's found his match in the Mountain Man - and it's time for an all-out war.

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!

Doing time in Texas is no picnic. But getting sent to The Walls in Huntsville is a fate worse than hanging. If the guards don't kill you, the prisoners will. And if it weren't for the fact that the man who framed Hank Fallon and murdered his family could be inside The Walls, Hank would never step one foot in that heinous helltrap - let alone go undercover as an inmate. But this isn't just another assignment. This is his chance for revenge.

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.

It sounds like an easy job: track down the lady friend of notorious outlaw Duke Winter and bring her in for questioning. There's just one problem: Slash and Pecos have never met a woman like Miss Fannie Diamond, a glamorous showgirl who's prettier than a French poodle, slicker than a Dodge City gambler, and more slippery than a Mojave rattlesnake. She knows that Slash and Pecos are coming for her and has no intention of being caught—not without one hell of a fight.

Not many men get a second chance at life. But thanks to a chief US marshal who needs their help, the bank-robbing duo of Jimmy "Slash" Braddock and Melvin "Pecos Kid" Baker are on the right side of the law. As unofficial marshals, they've agreed to pick up three prisoners from a Milestown jail and escort them to Denver. Sounds easy enough - until they learn the prisoners are an unholy trio of sadistic cutthroat killers known as Talon, "Hellraisin'" Frank, and the Sioux called Black Pot.

Settling the American West required true grit, fortitude, and when necessary, shedding blood. It also required men like Preacher and MacCallister to enforce peace in a land where the law was scarce—and justice was delivered from the barrel of a gun. 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

After a lifetime of robbing banks and holding up trains, Jimmy “Slash” Braddock, and Melvin “Pecos Kid” Baker are ready to call it quits — though not completely by choice. Sold out by their old gang, Slash and Pecos have to bust out of jail and pull one last job to finance their early retirement....

In his mountain man days, Elwood "Firestick" McQueen was practically a living legend. His hunting, tracking, and trapping skills were known far and wide. But it was his deadly accuracy with a rifle that earned him the Indian name "Firestick". His two best buddies are Malachi "Beartooth" Skinner - whose knife was as fatal as a grizzly's chompers - and Jim "Moosejaw" Hendricks, who once wielded the jawbone of a moose to crush his enemies in the heat of battle.

In this bold new series, a legendary gunslinger tries to outrun his past and start a new life. But after so many years, so many bullets—and so much bloodshed—he finds old habits die hard. And new enemies die harder . . .

Colton Gray doesn't look like your typical deputy marshal. He's too young and good-looking for a West Texas lawman. At least that's what his boss thinks. As captain, Marshal John Timmons feels this new kid Colton isn't up to the job—at least not yet—so he sends him on minor assignments to keep him out of Boot Hill. But to everyone's surprise, young Colton manages to track down Eli Doolin and Casey Tubbs, the notorious "Old Man Bank Robbers." Not only that, he claims he gunned them down in a shootout, earning high praise from the West Texas chief marshal's office. And a legend is born.

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.