Showing results by author "Matt Braun" in All Categories

Earl Brannock was a gambling man who fled the fires of the Civil War and found a boomtown called Denver - in a land being built on dreams, luck, and gold. Virgil Brannock joined him next, fresh from Lee's surrender at Appomattox, determined to rise to the top of the frontier's rough and treacherous business world. Finally, Clint came riding a trail of revenge: a fiery young Brannock who dared to wear a badge.... The three brothers were reunited once again.

Wyatt Earp was a man who craved fame, power, and prominence. He came to Tombstone with a plan to get elected sheriff and a dream of building the biggest business empire the booming mining town had ever seen. But by Christmas, both his brothers had been struck down, and their assassins were coming after him and Doc Holliday. For Earp, a man of ambition and pride, it would mean putting aside his dream for one last fight...not for glory, but revenge.

In a place called No Man's Land, Texas rancher Ben Langham hired Luke Starbuck for his loyalty and toughness gained by riding with Rip Ford's Texas volunteers. But when Langham sent Starbuck after a band of horse thieves, a loyal man left behind the only home he had ever known - and met the stranger in himself.

The Brannock brothers have very different dreams for their lives in the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest. Virgil is a railroad man; Clint is in the Calvary; and Earl has settled in with the Comanches. Their paths cross in a fatal gun battle that puts their code of honor to the test.

Winner of the Golden Spur, Matt Braun writes novels with an unparalleled knowledge of the West.

In the harsh land of New Mexico, Clint and Virgil Brannock keep a sharp eye on their ranch, the Rio Hondo, and family, lest cheats and hustlers move in. When corrupt attorney Stephen Benton and his Santa Fe Ring threaten the ranch, the two brothers realize they must fight for the land and livelihood they cherish, or die trying.

For decades, the Texas plains ran with the blood of natives and settlers, as pioneers carved out ranch land from ancient Indian hunting grounds and the US Army turned the tide of battle. Now the Civil War has begun, and the Army is pulling out of Fort Belknap - giving the Comanches a new chance for victory and revenge.

He came from the American South, a gentleman by breeding, a dentist by training, a gambler by vocation. But as Dr. John H. Holliday, a man fleeing his tragic past, drifted across the West, living among some of the roughest men on the frontier, word spread quickly he never walked away from a fight, and he never drew too late.Now, from Dodge City to Denver and Cheyenne, from boomtown to sinkholes, "Doc" Holliday was driven by the demons of his past, a skilled gambler and a seasoned mankiller....

Ben Thompson carved out a name for himself as a gambler and a shootist - from Dodge City to the Rio Grande. But settling down in Austin with a wife and young son didn't settle Ben's taste for the sporting life. He still found himself in the gambling dives - where the turn of a card too often led to a shootout. Soon a circle of powerful businessmen decides that Thompson is the only man who can tame Austin's wild side. They ask him to rule the streets - and take no prisoners. They want him to take on the job of a marshal in a town in which every man packs a gun.

Three Brannock brothers came west. Now, only one of them survives, and Clint Brannock feels the weight of responsibility as a U.S. deputy marshal. Hunting down an outlaw in the Indian territories, Clint meets up with two of his nephews one destined to live or die by the gun, the other to live or die in his shadow. And in southern New Mexico, a beautiful sister-in-law, Elizabeth, presides over 100,000 rich acres and dabbles in a dangerous game.

Born a slave, Jim Beckwith forged his own path to freedom as a mountain man. But when a wealthy trading company owner offered to pay him to live among the Crow Indians, Beckwith accepted the deal - and discovered another way of life that changed him forever. Here in the Wind River Mountains, amidst blood feuds and blood brothers, he became Bloody Hand, a man sworn to take a hundred scalps - and destined to become the People’s greatest warrior - in a life-or-death struggle that shaped the fate of a nation.

Matt Braun's Spur Award-winning Dakota tells the compelling story of Teddy Roosevelt's foray into rugged Dakota Territory. Stunned by a Valentine's Day telegram, Teddy Roosevelt reached his Manhattan home just in time to watch death claim first his mother and then his wife on that dark day in 1884. Abandoning a promising political career, 25-year-old Teddy sought the healing solace of the Dakota Bad Lands.

Print Oliver gave his blood and his soul for the Confederacy. Then he came home to find his family ranch under siege from Union carpetbaggers and his neighbors turned against him. For the Texan there was no choice but to blaze a trail toward power, rounding up wild longhorns and driving them toward markets from Galveston to Abilene.

When Luke Starbuck takes on a wealthy banker as a client, the only thing more compelling than the paycheck is his prey. The James-Younger gang has confounded countless detectives, including the men of the Pinkerton Agency. Now it's Starbuck's chance to bring down the most notorious group of outlaws the West has ever seen-led by none other than cold-blooded killer Jesse James. Undercover work and patient tracking take Starbuck from Kansas City straight through the Indian Territory

John Wesley Hardin's powderkeg temper earned him twelve bodies by age twenty—and a place at the top of the Texas MOST WANTED list. Now a happy husband and a father, he thinks his fighting days are over and done. Until he's ambushed by an angry loser in a local poker game… Soon the law is on Wes's trail again, but this time he's got too much at stake. Hardin only wants peace—but he's willing to wage a one-man war to stay free.

America's richest legends come from the frontier - from the land where the events of a single moment might erase the lines between law and lawlessness, between safety and mortal danger, between heroes and villains. The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers. Here's the most varied collection of short stories, by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

Texas rancher Ben Langham left his sprawling inheritance to the man he trusted most: Luke Starbuck. Once Starbuck had dreamed of having land of his own. Now he dreams of finding the man who gunned down Langham - and bringing him to justice. With the Cattlemen's Association behind him, Starbuck has all the authority he needs to ride into New Mexico on the path of a murderous band of thieves.

A rare breed of bulldog and bloodhound, private detective Luke Starbuck has been hired to ferret out the Judas working for the Central Pacific—a mastermind behind a string of train robberies. The target: gold shipments from the Frisco mint. All Starbuck has to do is pass himself off as an outlaw and infiltrate the pack. But chumming up to a gang leader like Denny O'Brien means that Starbuck must follow him into the vice pits of the notorious Barbary Coast. Getting inside this hellhole of crime is easy if you make the right moves. Make the wrong ones, and getting out could be murder.

Luke Starbuck knew Death’s designs were as uncompromising as justice, and as cold and final as an unmarked grave. But when Wyatt Earp and his gang were ambushed one moonlit evening and Earp emerged from the barrage of shotgun fire very much alive, Starbuck began to wonder if there was more to the ambitious, flint-eyed desperado than met the eye.

Learn to do it right the first time and create the life you want! This book is 80% what not to do and 20% what to do, but just by training yourself to avoid these all too common negative behaviors, you will already be way ahead of the pack. Once you've cleared the decks, you will be ready to learn and practice that valuable 20%—the positive mindset and methods that will catapult you to the next level. Join the thousands of people who have experienced success by following these tried and true practices. As an added bonus, you will receive additional insights from Clif's brother, Dave Braun...

In the Texas Panhandle, Newt Bascom and Sam Jordan are stock detectives who have the brains to outwit most rustlers - and the brawn to outfight the rest.