Showing results by author "Matt Braun" in All Categories

He came off the frontier: a buffalo hunter, a gambler, a loner. In Abilene, he won a saloon at cards and earned the fear of a lawless town. From then on, Jake Kincaid would not be stopped. He began a rampage of ambition and deal-making that forever changed a land called Kansas and the Indian Territories. But along the way, the deeds and misdeeds of Jake Kincaid affected more than the frontier - they shaped the lives of his two sons. One who became a lawman. One who became an outlaw. Both destined to come face-to-face behind blazing guns....

Lucas Brokaw is an incredibly wealthy man. But though he has amassed one of the greatest fortunes in the world, he is without an heir. Looking death in the face, he decides to leave his money to whoever can prove to be his reincarnated self. He has set up a foundation to oversee his assets until someone steps forward as the reincarnation of Lucas Brokaw - and can prove it. Hundreds of candidates emerge, each claiming to be the millionaire returned to collect his fortune. But all of them fail to provide significant knowledge of the life of Brokaw to back up their petition.

Bill Tilghman was the real thing, a lawman who wore his badge for one reason alone: to bring criminals to justice. Master novelist Matt Braun captures the final days of this extraordinary manhunter—when he faces a heroic fight on the bloody corrupt streets of Cromwell, Oklahoma. The saga of a man who would not back down and the woman who loved him to the end, One Last Town tells the story of a land swiftly vanishing into a new era: the legendary American frontier.

Matt Braun turns the classic elements of tough men and rough land into westerns that ring with authenticity. A native of the West and author of 31 novels, he bases many of his book on historic records. Deadwood draws on accounts of the infamous Butch Cassidy and his gang. The mountains and canyons of Dakota Territory create the perfect hideout for lawless men—Hole-in-the-Wall.

It's 1915. In Europe, men are dying in trenches. In Washington, sentiment is growing for war against the Kaiser. And in Mexico, an explosive plot is set in motion by a German agent, a deposed dictator, and an army of murderous rebels. Amid the chaos of Pancho Villa's revolution, a force of embittered Tejanos has crossed the Rio Grande, burning ranches, killing Texans, and gathering fighters in its wake.

The Osage Indians lost their ancestral freedom on a windswept reservation in Oklahoma. Now, in the Roaring Twenties, the land is spewing black gold; oil has been found, and every Osage owns a share of the rights. Soon Osage tribal members are being killed for their oil royalties while a corrupt sheriff turns his back on the murders, Special Agent Frank Gordon organizes and undercover operation while working openly with frontier legend US marshal Will Proctor.

It is 1881. El Paso, the wildest border town in an untamed Texas, is at a crossroads. A booming sin city crawling with corrupt politicians and gunslick outlaws, the town now faces its greatest challenge: the savagery of the notorious Banning Brothers. Dallas Stoudenmire is the marshal El Paso has hired to bring a quick end to the Bannings' reign of terror. Bloodshed erupts as the Bannings hire an assassin to send Stoudenmire to an early grave. Now the former Texas ranger will rely on nerves and a quick gun to save his own life - and bring swift justice to a desperate town....

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 is the most varied collection of short stories by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

He was an Indian fighter turned trailblazer and cattleman. Then he risked it all for a spread of Texas land in the uncharted Llano Estacado - and for the adventure of a lifetime. Jack Jordan was a legend before he turned 30. But his greatest quest lay ahead. he came to a breathtaking canyon called Palo Duro with a herd of cattle, a courageous woman, and an iron will. Jordan had already made and lost fortunes. Now he would make an extraordinary stand - with a fast gun and a vision that wouldn't die.

In 1889 Bill Tilghman joined the historic land rush that transformed a raw frontier into Oklahoma Territory. A lawman by trade, he set aside his badge to make his fortune in the boomtowns. Yet Tilghman was called into service once more, on a bold, relentless manhunt that would make his name a legend for all time - in an epic confrontation with outlaw gang leader Bill Doolin.

In California, the Southern Pacific Railway was prying the West wide open, and the land was worth its weight in gold. While some men got in on the action, and some got out of the way, one group of settlers was making a stand and holding up the railway. Turning to Alan Pinkerton's Chicago detective agency, the railroad robber barons hire the perfect agent to penetrate the settlers' organization, a man who had learned a spy's trade in the Civil War. Tall, debonair, and pleasure-loving Ash Tallman can fight when he has to.

Jack Stillman has come from Cheyenne to Tenbow Valley to solve a string of murders. Each victim was a landowner in the valley, and each killing was carried out with a long range rifle. Taking on the guise of a gambler, Stillman is quick to line up his suspects and start prying open their secrets. Suddenly, in a land of wild honeysuckle, snowy mountain peaks, and the spirits of native warriors, the veteran lawman realizes he's made a fatal mistake and missed a motive as old as time itself.

Dan Stuart plans to stage the prizefight of the century. But soon he finds the path to riches strewn with obstacles. Outraged politicians block Stuart at every turn, and a gang of robbers led by a sharp-shooting beauty has plans of its own: the heist of the century. Stuart has two champion pugilists, five gunmen, Bat Masterson, and Judge Roy Bean in his corner. Now, with his team set to score and the Texas Rangers hot on his trail, the West's first boxing promoter is desperately searching for a place to hold his fight. And when he finds it, what a hell of a fight it will be....

In Matt Braun’s The Last Stand, the land of Five Civilized Tribes is stolen from its people by a Federal government determined to make Oklahoma the 46th state. Chitto Starr, a full-blood Cherokee, will not go gently into the night. Instead, Chitto ignites an armed rebellion - and brings an honest, determined lawman onto his trail. For Deputy US Marshal Owen McLain, hunting down Starr and his rebels is the last job he wants - and the one he has to do right, or die. Now, the two men are locked in a duel of cunning and violence on a tragic, history-scarred land.

They'd killed five men already and stolen a quarter of a million dollars in silver and gold. Now a band of vicious thieves has drawn the best man that Wells Fargo can send: the rangy, mysterious Chicago-based Pinkerton agent named Ash Tallman. An operator who works with a pleasure-loving beauty who goes by many names and does her best work in the least amount of clothes, Tallman is heading to Red Rock, Arizona territory.

In the summer of 1871, a gang threatening the residents of Newton, Kansas gunned down a lawman named McCluskie. Ninety seconds later, five of the attackers were dead, picked off by a consumptive 17-year-old named Kinch Riley. After avenging the murder of his mentor, Kinch disappeared from the pages of history. Although the rest of Riley’s life wasn’t recorded, his name and lightning speed with a gun live on in Western lore. Braun studied old newspaper articles and records of eyewitness accounts to recreate what might have happened in the last year of this enigmatic young man’s life.

The Orphan Train is nothing more than a traveling asylum for young urchins, stolen off the streets of New York's Lower East Side. Across the country they will be sold to the highest bidder - unless stopped in their tracks. Hickok and Cody take on the task, and begin a deadly cross-country journey tat will end in the wilds of Manhattan. Their quest for justice pits them against underworld thugs and raw corruption in a bloodbath that rocks the city. New York will never be the same again....

Cole Braddock, a Western detective, is hired to take on the Santa Fe Ring, a secret conspiracy of businessmen and politicians determined to gain control of New Mexico.

In the 1870s the frontier was a battleground, where the US Army fought Plains warriors, outlaws terrorized the land, and lawmen took no prisoners. Into the West came a family of New York City stage performers: a widowed father, his son, and a daughter whose beauty and singing voice could make the most hardened frontiersmen weep. The Fontaine family was not prepared for the the life they found across the Mississippi. From Abilene to Dodge City, they crossed paths with some of the legendary figures on the frontier, from Jesse James to Bill Hickok and General George Custer.

With outlaws wrecking havoc left and right, a cow town in Texas is on the brink of becoming a ghost town. That's when it's time to call in Chicago-based Pinkerton agent Ash Tallman and his partner Vivian Valentine. Going undercover as a handsome, charming drifter, Ash is always ready with his gun and popular with the ladies. And the lovely, vivacious Viv plays the role of a fervent evangelist, offering salvation with the promise of a sweeter reward to any sinner who can give her clues.