Showing results by author "J.A. Johnstone" in All Categories

There's serious trouble brewing in the Choctaw nation, and it goes by the name of Tiny McCoy. This small-time cattle rustler is expanding his brand by brewing batches of whiskey in the Chocktaw territory of Muddy Boggy Creek. Tiny and his partner have also turned the illegal brewery into a robber's roost for outlaws, cutthroats, and killers of every bent. Local lawman Jim Little Eagle is under attack and outgunned. But when he sends a wire to Fort Smith asking for backup and the US Deputy Marshal Tanner shows up, Little Eagle knows they're in for one hell of a bloodbath.

It's one of the great mysteries of the Old West. The unexplained disappearance of a hunting party of Prussian nobles who entered the American wilderness - and never returned. Now, years later, the Prussian government demands an explanation. In response, the US Army hires Preacher and Jamie MacCallister to join their search party - along with a band of Prussian soldiers led by the sinister Baron Adalwolf von Kuhner. Some believe it's a hopeless mission, that the original party was slaughtered by the Blackfeet. Others think there may be survivors, likely women held captive as slaves.

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.

It's hard country, but the pioneers of Fury (Population 112) are banding together to make it a home. With barren lands, blinding dust storms, drought, hostile Indians and violent bands of cutthroat outlaws against them, death is never far away. It's enough to make Jason Fury, whose father the town was named after, ride out for San Francisco. But a fiery young redhead named Megan McDonald keeps him Arizona bound - and just in time.

The Buchanans are no strangers to hard times—or making hard choices. After losing a hefty number of livestock to a killer grizzly, Hunter Buchanan is forced to sell a dozen broncs down in Denver for some badly needed cash. Everything goes smoothly—until he's ambushed on the way home. The culprits are a murderous bunch of prairie rat outlaws, as dangerous as any Buchanan has ever tangled with. But Hunter is hell-bent on getting his money back. Even if means pursuing the thieves into Dakota Territory—where even deadlier dangers await.

Sheriff McCabe knew he’d make a lot of enemies when he agreed to be a special agent for the Texas governor. But now that he’s managed to keep the peace in the hopeless town of New Hope, he’s hoping he can go home to Two Forks and get back to business as usual. No such luck. The corrupt marshal of East City, Micah Moran, and his murdering band of kill-crazy cutthroats are running wild, leaving the folks in East City in a deadly grip of terror. Now, Two Forks will have to wait because Micah Moran and his evil gang need to be taught some manners—with McCabe’s own brand of retribution.

There are a million ways to die in the great state of Texas. And on the lawless streets of New Hope, the odds are even worse. Once the home of Comanche, the region has been up for grabs since the settlers drove off the natives. Now it’s a magnet for settlers looking for cheap land, merchants looking to exploit its resources—and outlaws looking for a place to hide in between robbing and killing.

In a twist of fate, Slash and Pecos are riding hard for the law, dispensing justice as they see fit, and determined to watch their final sunset as heroes... not outlaws. His wicked ways mostly behind him, reformed bank robber Jimmy “Slash” Braddock is getting hitched to his sweetheart. But before the honeymoon, Chief U.S. Marshal Luther T. “Bleed-’Em-So” Bledsoe needs Slash and his former partner-in-crime, Melvin “The Pecos River Kid” Baker, to play unofficial Federal mercenaries again—this time saddling up for a trip to Nebraska.

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.

The Indians around Fort Laramie, Wyoming, are peaceful. Or so it has seemed - until killers ambush a detail of US soldiers and an officer's wife. One man, an ambitious cavalry officer, flees the carnage and lives to tell the story - his own story, an outright lie. When Duff MacCallister and a few brave men go after the attackers, they discover the officer's wife is very much alive and at the cold merciless hands of the sadistic warrior Yellow Hawk. To free the woman, Duff touches off a fierce battle.

The Scottish Highlands, 1885. Two men, brandishing knives, attack a young woman outside a pub. Duff MacAllister steps in and saves her - killing one of the assailants. Big mistake. The attacker was the sheriff's son, and now MacAllister is marked for death. His only hope: America. Here, in the sprawling land of dreams, Duff hopes to start a new life with his American cousins. Unfortunately, the sheriff's deputies are tracking him down - with nine of the deadliest cutthroats money can buy.

It starts with an unusual request: "On this trip there will be no cussing, no drinking, no gambling, and no loose women." No problem. Or so Red Ryan thinks - until he meets the passengers. They include four holy and silent monks, one beautiful lady tutor, and a drunken, washed-up gunfighter. Even worse, they're crossing the wild Texas hill country where bloodthirsty Apaches are on the loose and a mad-dog killer is on the prowl. But that can't compare to what's waiting for them at Fredericksburg.

There are two kinds of traps in the Old West. One is the kind that Preacher and his buddy, Charlie, use to catch a mountain-load of fur pelts. The other is the kind that Charlie steps into - a trap set by a low-life gambler and his seductive partner in crime to swindle Charlie out of his fur money. Preacher hates to see a good friend get robbed. So, he sets off after the grifters - on a riverboat bound for New Orleans. First, he infiltrates the criminal underworld of the French Quarter. Then, he’s enslaved on a pirate ship heading straight to hell.

Cotton Pickens’s parents had a cussed sense of humor, but there’s nothing funny about the way the man can draw a gun. Now he’s in the middle of a mining camp district slowly being crushed under the iron fist of another misnamed, hardheaded fellow, Carter Scruples. With Cotton facing off against Scruples, a beautiful young woman caught in-between and a band of outlaws living high and mighty in a dry-docked Pullman Palace Car, the town of Swamp Creek is surely going to get blown sky high.

Scratch Morton and Bo Creel, two aging cowpokes and friends for years, have seen their share of cattle drives, shootouts, and bust-ups. They do their best to stay on the right side of the law, and never go looking for trouble, but it seems to find them just the same. In Arizona Territory, they get stuck in the midst of a battle between competing stagecoach lines. Of course, a pretty woman who happens to own one of the lines has a lot to do with it, and things aren't quite what they seem.

Matt Cavanaugh was 9 years old when a band of outlaws slaughtered his family. Now Matt is 18, honed by hardship, schooled in the mountain ways and carrying the last name of the man who raised him: Smoke Jensen. With Smoke's wisdom, Matt's own courage and just enough money to start a life, Matt Jensen begins a relentless hunt for the outlaws who murdered his family in cold blood.

Originally introduced in 1902 in another Barrie novel, The Little White Bird, Peter's story was expanded as a stand-alone novel in 1911 and since then has been memorably adapted for the movies, for television and for the stage. The story's emotional truths about youth, freedom and responsibility continue to touch the heart and thrill the imagination. Barrie works an indisputable magic on listeners of all ages in this classic tale.

Red Ryan should've known this job would be trouble. The first stop is a ghost town and the cargo is a coffin. But things start to look a little brighter when Red and his stage guard Buttons Muldoon deliver the corpse to a ranch run by the beautiful Luna Talbot. Luna asks the boys to help them find the Lucky Cuss Gold Mine, using a map tucked inside the dead man's pocket. Red has a feeling they're playing with fire. Especially when the map leads them straight into crossfire of a ferocious range war.

Descended from a long line of fighters, lovers, and dreamers, the MacCallister clan are legends in their homeland of Scotland. But when Duff MacCallister came to America, it seems he brought the legend - and the war - along with him.... Here in America, life is full of surprises. Duff never expected to hear from his old friend Charles McGregor, his battalion commander from the Black Watch Regiment of Her Majesty's army. Turns out McGregor lives in New Mexico now. And he needs Duff's help.

U.S. Marshal Will Tanner is a man of the law, not a gun for hire. Except when a friend’s in danger and needs the Tanner brand of help that comes out the barrel of a gun.