Showing results by author "William W. Johnstone" in All Categories

What started as a routine hunt and grab - putting outlaw Thorp McCluskey on a train to Cheyenne and prison - has just gone straight to hell for bounty hunter Luke Jensen. First came the beautiful prostitute who pointed her alluring attentions in Luke's direction. Then came a man who fought by Luke's side in the war - but the war is over, and friendships can turn deadly. Luke gets bushwacked, his prisoner is gone, and so is a fortune in gold.

The cattle town of Chugwater may not look like much to outsiders. But for Duff MacCallister and the determined settlers who've staked their futures here, it's a land of opportunity. Young railroad developer Jacob Freemantle wants to run a rail line through Chugwater, making it easier to transport cattle. Everyone is on board with the plan - at first. Duff begins to suspect that Freemantle is only after the most valuable land, and he's using strongarm tactics to force reluctant ranchers to sell. Things only get worse when Freemantle's hired guns show up - and the violence really begins.

Restless cowpoke Perley Gates wanted nothing more than to track down the grandfather who abandoned his family years ago. What he found was the crazy old sidewinder barely hanging on after a Sioux massacre. The old man's dying wish was to make things right for deserting his kin - by giving his strong-willed grandson Perley clues to the whereabouts of a buried fortune in gold. Finding his grandfather's legacy will set up his family for life. But it won't be easy. 

It's fur trapping season and Preacher is about to discover the Rocky Mountain trail holds more than wild game - it's also infested with murderers and trail trash quick to deceive, steal, and hunt Preacher down. Among them are Jebediah Druke, his ruthless band of killers, and most terrifying of all, the barbaric renegade Crow warrior known as Blood Eye. When Preacher shows up and gets on their bad side, he stirs up a clash that could lead to a brutal and bloody battle. 

They rode into town like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Four armed outlaws bringing their own brand of hell to Paris, Texas. First they rob the First National Bank. Then they take a woman hostage as insurance. When Perley Gates learns that local waitress Becky Morris is in the hands of these tough customers, with only his friend Possum he rides to get her back. Problem is, the outlaws are heading toward the Red River--straight into Indian Territory. That's where the ranch hands draw the line. But Perley won't give up.

Smoke Jensen was buying cattle a hundred miles away from his Colorado ranch when he got the news. He saddled up, rode off, and didn’t stop until he reached his wife’s side. She had been shot three times and lay close to death. Smoke knew the outlaws had come to kill him and he wasn’t going to give them a second chance. He was going after them.

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.

Located in the bullet-riddled heart of Texas, the Lost Coyote Saloon in the town of Wolf Creek is a magnet for drifters, grifters, and outlaws on the run. That's why the bar's manager, the beautiful Rachel Baskin, is glad the new owner is Ben Savage. A former Texas Ranger with a fast draw and low threshold for trouble, Savage knows how to keep the peace. But when notorious hellraiser Malcolm Hazzard is released from prison—and heading to Wolf Creek to kill the local sheriff—the whole town knows the lawman doesn't have a prayer. There's only one way to stop a devil like Hazzard.

Preacher is no hired killer. When a wagon train is ambushed on the Santa Fe Trail, though, he can’t say no to the St. Louis businessman willing to pay him for justice. It’s not the stolen gold that’s convinced Preacher to take the job. And it’s not the missing body of one of the wagon train’s crew, a prime suspect who may have plotted the ambush and taken off with the gold. No, it’s the suspect’s lovely fiancée, Alita Montez. She believes her boyfriend is innocent—and has run off to find him. Preacher can’t abide the idea of a young woman alone on the Santa Fe Trail.

USA Today best-selling author William W. Johnstone delivers an exciting tale from his Mountain Man series. Smoke Jensen once sought revenge for the murder of his wife and child, but now he is a peaceful man. That won't stop Bill Pike, Texas bounty hunter, from collecting a reward for an old claim on Smoke's head. As for Smoke's woman, Bill has plans for her that will ensnare Smoke and his mountain men in a deadly trap.

Frank Morgan has drifted down to Idaho after a wild range war in Montana and his fame as a gunfighter is traveling fast and far ahead of him. With his face on the covers of newspapers and dozens of dime novels, he's got nowhere left to hide. And now It seems that gunning down a legend like Frank has become more than an obsession to some men — it's a high stakes sport.

Kansas doesn’t want it. Neither does Texas. The 35-mile wide strip of land destined to become the Oklahoma panhandle is a place unlike any other on the frontier: with no laws, no rules and a powerful attraction for killers, looters and fugitives. Frank Morgan, a gunfighter feared by all and hated by some, has been warned to stay the hell out of "the strip." But warnings never did work well on Morgan. So when an ambush robs him of his heart’s desire and nearly takes his life and his would - be murderers take refuge in the strip, the die is cast....

When Falcon MacCallister buys a silver mine in the Arizona Territory from his old friend Doc Holliday, he gets more than he bargained for. On the way to inspect the mine, Falcon's stagecoach is robbed and two passengers are killed. One of those passengers is Cloud Dancer, the daughter of Apache chief Keytano, nephew to Naiche, Falcon's old nemesis.

Charlie Dawson and his partner Clem don't consider themselves bad guys. But they definitely made a bad error in judgment on a gold mine deal—turns out there was no gold—and ended up in a shootout with some very angry claim jumpers. Now a posse is in hot pursuit of Charlie and Clem. The unlucky pair hightail it to San Francisco, where they try to blend into the red-light district known as Barbary Coast. Another bad decision on their part.

Ever since the silver market crashed, the mining town of Dead Broke has been awfully quiet. The local marshal—legendary gunman Duncan "Mick" MacMicking—doesn't have much to do besides outshoot the occasional greenhorn looking to challenge him. But all this peace and quiet is about to end. Mayor Nugget has unearthed a mineral to rival his famous "Hope Diamond of Silver." He calls it the "Zinc of Zion," a 1,776-pound boulder of pure zinc carbonate. And when he announces his discovery, the quiet boomtown of Dead Broke goes boom—again—with a vengeance.

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.

The completion of a new railroad line from Colorado to Texas is a dream come true for Smoke Jensen and the other ranchers of Big Rock. But this dream turns into their worst nightmare when the first herd they load onto the train is stolen by a vicious gang of kill-crazy rustlers. This is no ordinary train robbery. It’s an inferno of slaughter that includes the friendly rancher who volunteered to take Smoke’s place on the trip. Now Smoke is saddling up and riding out—to get the prairie rats who murdered his friend.

He’s the most notorious cattle rustler in all of Texas. His name — Jebediah Cotton — strikes fear into the hearts of every rancher in the territory. So it’s more than a little strange that someone would shoot Cotton’s youngest son in the back. Whoever did it is either a coward, a fool, or a crazy man. Whoever did it must die. Even if he’s a US deputy marshal named Will Tanner....

They call him Ghost. A hard man with a hard past, Garret "Ghost" McCoy will never forget the day his family was brutally attacked by vicious marauders. It forced him to grow up fast, get tough even faster, and sharpen every skill to survive—by gun, by knife, or by fist. A true loner and silent stalker, Ghost is the kind of no-nonsense bounty hunter who always gets his man. Dead or alive. But it's only a matter of time before his reputation catches up with him—in a dusty dead-end town called Coyote Flats....

There's nothing like a wedding to bring families together. And there's no place like the Sugarloaf Ranch to throw a foot-stomping hoedown - even if it turns into a gun-blazing showdown. Smoke and Sally Jensen are delighted that their son, Louis, is marrying the lovely widow he met during a perilous stagecoach journey through the Donner Pass. The whole family welcomes the bride and her young son with open arms.