Showing results by author "James J. Griffin" in All Categories

If you miss the Golden Age of Western action books and films, you’ll love James J. Griffin’s novel, Desperate Ride. This gun-slinging thriller leaps from the page and gallops headlong into a series of adventures for veteran Texas Ranger, Will Kirkpatrick, and his young Ranger recruit, Jonas Peterson. Receiving orders to clean up a huge swath of west Texas, the Rangers begin encountering outlaws and renegades before they even reach the heart of the crime-infested range. In saloons, at camp, on steam trains and stage coaches, Will and Jonas face down bandits, fugitives, crooked lawmen and...

Fight for Freedom is a story of determination, passion, loss, betrayal, and ultimate triumph. Take a wagon train of former slaves and freemen heading to start a new life in west Texas, add some men determined to keep them from reaching their destination, toss in a rancher who will do anything to drive the settlers from the land they've chosen for their new town, add in an order from the Governor to protect the emigrants, and you have a recipe for a whole passel of trouble for Lieutenant Jim Blawcyzk and his Texas Ranger partners. It will take only one spark to ignite this powder keg. Ride ...

In Bullet for a Ranger, Jim Blawcyzk is in jail in the town of Quitaque, Texas, accused of murdering a saloon girl. Someone in the town wants Blawcyzk out of the way at all costs. With his trial fast approaching, and everyone in town convinced of his guilt, Jim must somehow find a way from his jail cell to prove his innocence, and fast. With his only ally the town padre, the task appears impossible even for the resourceful Blawcyzk. Bullet for a Ranger is a fast-paced, action-packed Texas Ranger tale.

It takes one tough man to make it as a Texas Ranger, and Jim Blawcyzk certainly qualifies. But surviving this particular month has been full of trials he never expected—and quitting never entered his mind. After single-handedly arresting a ring of murderous cattle rustlers he caught red-handed, his next case is something that affects him for weeks. When a mentally-challenged young man is shot down right alongside him after Jim has guaranteed his safety, it sends the hardened Ranger into a downward spiral of self-doubt. Only a few days later, he barely escapes death again in a violent West...

When Captain Quincy's company of Rangers is ordered to the Big Bend, Nate has no choice but to ride with them. It appears his odds of finding the men who murdered his family grow more distant with each passing mile. But a chance encounter with a patrol of buffalo soldiers provides the first solid lead as to the gang's whereabouts--and Captain Quincy's Rangers make a detour to find the pale-eyed demon whose gang has been responsible for so many deaths. Will Nate and his Ranger companions finally catch up with the killers? Nate's gut feeling says they will—but who will survive?

Nate Stewart has been a Texas Ranger for almost four years now. He’s no longer the scared fourteen-year-old orphan he was when a patrol of Rangers found him after his family was murdered—with Nate shot and left for dead. Nate’s best friend and riding partner, former Texas Ranger Hoot Harrison, was crippled for life in a vicious gun battle. Hoot has married and settled down on the ranch Nate inherited, with both of them full partners. Now, unscrupulous land speculators are trying to steal the ranch from Nate and Hoot. When Nate takes a leave of absence from his duties as a Texas Ranger...

New Hampshire State Police detective Paul Talbot returns for another spine-tingling murder mystery. Someone is killing many of the top dressage riders on the horse show circuit. This time, though, the murders hit too close to home when his wife Jacquie’s riding instructor, Horst Wilhelm, is murdered and the body hung from the covered bridge near the Talbots’ farm. Paul becomes the prime suspect in Wilhelm’s murder and is taken off the investigation just when it appears Jacquie may be the murderer’s next target. Sprinkled throughout with welcome, offbeat bits of humor, DEATH BY ...

It’s been nearly two years since Nate Stewart’s family was murdered by a gang of evil marauders on the unforgiving Texas frontier. Shot and left for dead, Nate is rescued by a patrol of Texas Rangers who adopt him as one of their own. In no time at all, young Nate, a transplanted Easterner, becomes a full-fledged Texan and the youngest member of the Texas Rangers, guided by his friend, Hoot Harrison. Now, the time has come for Nate, Hoot, and eight other young Rangers to prove their mettle in the most dangerous assignment of all. This newly-formed detachment of Rangers is being sent to ...

With renegade Apaches and deadly gangs of outlaws running rampant in the Texas badlands, Texas Ranger Captain Quincy has no choice but to divide his band of Rangers and take on some new recruits. This mission is the most dangerous yet for Nate Stewart, who, at fifteen, is the youngest Ranger in the company. Now serving under Lieutenant Jeb Rollins, Nate and his best friend, Hoot Harrison, must face the fact that this may very well be their last mission—ever. The odds are stacked against them from the outset, with prairie fires, roaming bands of dangerous desperadoes, and the harsh ...

Texas Ranger Tim Bannon has been assigned to track down a gang of vicious outlaws who have been robbing and murdering all over south-central Texas. However, he has a problem. His old horse is no longer up to the task of traveling for days on end chasing renegades. Tim is forced to take the trail on a rented livery stable mount. Before he finds his quarry, he will discover that Rangers don't always have only two legs... some have four.

In Renegade Ranger, Jim Blawcyzk is shot and left for dead by Tom Foley, a fellow Texas Ranger and riding partner who has just murdered their commanding officer. With Jim lying gravely wounded, it's up to his longtime Ranger partner and friend Smoky McCue, and Jim's son Charlie and Charlie's friend Ty Tremblay, both newly appointed to the Rangers, to track down the Ranger turned killer. Unfortunately, the trail takes Charlie and Ty into Mexico, where Foley has powerful friends, who are determined to keep the renegade Ranger from facing Texas justice, at any cost. Renegade Ranger is an ...

Nate Stewart’s parents and older brother are brutally murdered by a gang of raiders on the Texas plains, and Nate is left for dead. But a company of Texas Rangers saves his life, and through a twist of fate, Nate proves himself as a provisional Ranger. At fourteen years old, he’s too young to join the ranks of the Rangers just yet—but he’s not too young to seek out the men who killed his family! From fighting with a knife to imbibing his first bottle of tequila, Nate learns some much-needed lessons in growing up. But when he and pal Hoot Harrison confront a gang of bank robbers, ...

Sixth-generation Texas Ranger James C. Blawcyzk is granted permission to go after the two survivors of a group of terrorists who intended to bomb the Alamo. Jim's Texas Ranger father stopped the plot, killing four of the terrorists, but at the cost of his own life. Now, almost two years later, the remaining men have been seen, deep in the Big Bend. Jim will track down those killers and mete out justice ... or die trying.

Texas Ranger Will Kirkpatrick brings a young outlaw, Jonas Peterson, in for trial in Pecos, Texas. But Will finds the tables have turned on him when the judge entrusts Peterson to Will’s care for a year rather than sending the youngster to Huntsville State Penitentiary for his crime. It’s up to Will to teach Jonas how to be a Texas Ranger—and how to be a man. When Will returns to his post with Jonas, Captain Hunter gives him some unwelcome news—Will is going home for his sister’s wedding, whether he likes it or not. Though Will has been estranged from his family since he left to ...

Cattle rustling is about to get the best of some of the finest ranches in Texas—until the Rangers come to call. But while Nate, Hoot, and the rest of Captain Quincy’s Texas Rangers are out to arrest the outlaws, things take an unexpected turn for the worse. When Nate throws in with the renegade rustlers, his Ranger friends can hardly believe it. It seems that the compadre they’d trusted and accepted into their regiment as one of their own has turned on them—but can it be true? Nate appears to enjoy the life of crime as he not only steals cattle, but robs banks and stagecoaches on ...

Nate Stewart and his Texas Ranger partners return to Austin from their grueling assignment in west Texas, expecting only a few days’ rest before they are sent back on the outlaw trail. Instead, they learn that the state legislature has refused to extend funding for most of the Rangers. All but a few have been given their walking papers—placed on indefinite furlough. Forced to face an uncertain future without the Rangers, Nate and his best friend and partner, Hoot Harrison, travel to the land Nate still owns outside San Saba. With mixed feelings, the pair heads toward Nate’s family's ...

Texas Ranger Nate Stewart has been through a lot in his life—and his losses aren’t over yet. In the months that Nate has ridden with Captain Quincy and his Rangers, his best friend and pardner, Hoot Harrison, has been the rock Nate has depended on. But once beautiful Clarissa Hennessey comes into Hoot’s life, she sets out to destroy the friendship between the two young Rangers. When the chips are down and Black Dog’s raiders attack the Hennessey ranch, there’s bound to be bloodshed and lives lost. Will Clarissa divide Hoot and Nate forever, or can Hoot prove that he’s A RANGER ...

Texas Ranger Jim Blawcyzk lands in hot water when he kills a drug dealer in a shoot-out between the Rangers and a gang of modern day outlaws deep in the heart of Texas. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg as he uncovers the criminal connection between these same drug dealers and a slew of murders taking place across several Texas counties. When the hit men come after him and his family, they get more than they ever bargained for—the fight is on, and Jim Blawcyzk is one Ranger who is determined to get his man, or die trying. As a deadly shooter chases his wife, mother, and baby son ...

Texas Ranger Lieutenant Nate Stewart is now the commander of Texas Ranger Special Company G. His company has the formidable task of cleaning up Tascosa and the far northern reaches of the Texas Panhandle, a hotbed of crime and unrest between ranchers and homesteaders. From the moment Nate and his men enter Tascosa, trouble seems to be everywhere they turn. They quickly learn not to expect much help from the townspeople or even the local sheriff. Sitting on a powderkeg, Nate and his company must keep the big ranchers from blocking public roads and running the homesteaders off their land. In ...

Texas Ranger Andy Anderson, his horse Patches, and dog Tippy Howard, are on their way back to Ranger Headquarters in Austin. Andy decides to stop for the night in the town of Llano. Andy soon discovers that the hotel he has chosen is apparently haunted. Then, he meets three children, ten year old Tommy, his seven year old sister Becky, and Tommy's best friend Julio. They inform him Llano is plagued by another ghost, one which is frightening people, then stealing from them. Ranger Andy agrees to help them look for the spirit, and put an end to its tricks. What follows is a suspenseful ...