Showing results by author "William Johnstone" in All Categories

Preacher, against his better judgment, agrees to lead a wagon train of women across the West. He hires a pack of mountain men to assist him, but he gets more than he bargained for when a gang of cutthroats follows the train with murder, rape and slave trafficking in mind. Led by the nefarious Easterner Victor Bedell, the outlaws will accomplish what few have done before: they will get a bullet into Preacher. But they’ll make a fatal mistake. They’ll leave him for dead. Soon the mountains will echo with avenging gunfire.

Falcon MacCallister's father, Jamie Ian, was a legend in the West, but Falcon's quest for justice has driven him onto what many consider the wild side of the law. Famed as a gunslinger, feared for his lethal speed and accuracy, Falcon decides to make it a fair fight when he comes upon a man being attacked by a bandit gang in the Dakota Territory. The man is Teddy Roosevelt, the original Rough Rider himself. Soon Falcon and Teddy are entangled in a web of robbery, kidnapping and murder that will lead to Falcon's trial on manslaughter charges.

Frank Morgan survived his first trip to Alaska. Barely. Now, in Western Canada, Morgan and a band of survivors encounter an arch enemy with a fortune in ill-gotten gains - money he'll use to supply murderous Metis rebels with stolen U.S. Army Gatling guns to use for a bloodbath - and the Last Gunfighter is now in their way. But before the rebels can kill him, a daring U.S. secret agent joins his side. In a harsh and untamed land, Frank Morgan will soon face the ultimate battle for survival - before an all-out civil war explodes.

Preacher has agreed to escort Barnaby Cooper through Dakota Territory’s hills to establish a trading post. Accompanied by his friends Lorenzo and Tall Dog, the mountain man hopes they’ll be able to protect Cooper from Sioux warriors who don’t want any white man trespassing on their sacred grounds. But the Sioux aren’t the only hostiles staking their claim in the region.

In No Man's Land, Frank Morgan, a greatly feared and greatly admired gunslinger, comes to Oklahoma, a lawless territory, with only Dog, his horse Stormy, and his reputation. He's itching for a fight, but will he be able to find any pardoners in this seemingly God-forsaken land?

When Frank Morgan gets to a town called Los Angeles, he can see the forces gathering around him. For the Spanish landowners, wealth is measured in cattle on the open range. For hard nosed oilmen, a fortune is in the ground - in the form of shining black crude oil.... When blood is spilled on the sun-seared land, Morgan allies himself with a beautiful, widowed rancher - even as he cuts a deal with an ambitious wildcatter. Morgan is not trying out treachery.

Purgatory, Arizona, is the last place you'll ever cross the law. Because in this town, the law is the personal fiefdom of an evil man - as Matt Jensen discovered on his first day in town, when an unavoidable gunfight and a dead deputy landed him in jail, sentenced to hang at Yuma Prison. But when the train from Purgatory to Yuma is violently derailed, Matt is set free amidst the carnage - with a choice to make. He can run for his life and live like an outlaw or take a chance with the determined U.S. Marshall who must hunt him down.

At first, the job sounds easy: lead a small herd of horses across the Arkansas–Texas border to the Double-D ranch near Texarkana. No problem—at least not for a man like Perley Gates. In fact, he’s looking forward to the 150-mile journey with his old sidekick Possum Smith and young Sonny Rice, and doesn’t expect any trouble along the way. Unfortunately, trouble has a way of finding Perley Gates. This time, it’s a trigger-happy trio of horse thieves who take one look at old Possum, young Sonny, and the low-key Perley, and decide they’re three very easy targets.

Long before there was a mountain man called Preacher, a young adventurer set off with a team of fur traders from St. Louis for the time of his life. On a wild frontier, he sought a fortune. Instead, he found blood, betrayal and the beginning of a legend. Armed only with a knife, surrounded by a fierce Blackfoot war party, the young man was forced to kill a warrior chief in an act of audacious courage. But when a savage grizzly bear attack left him half-dead, he could no longer protect himself.

Drawn to a killing ground... Ten thousand dollars. That's the bounty on the head of the most hated man in Texas - the man Flintlock has been hired to guard. The crime was the brutal murder of a young schoolteacher. The verdict was not guilty for lack of evidence. And the suspected killer's first guard was murdered by a shotgun blast.

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.

Best-selling author William W. Johnstone has penned more than 200 novels, and is especially loved for his Westerns. Smoke Jensen travels from his peaceful Sugarloaf Ranch to Santa Clara, Colorado, where he wins an auction for a pureblood Hereford bull. But this makes Pogue Quentin, the town’s leading citizen and a man accustomed to bloodshed, furious. When Smoke’s friend has a run-in with Quentin, things get pretty dicey.

For Smoke and his daughter Denny, life on the Sugarloaf Ranch is more valuable than all the gold in the world. Which works out fine, since all the gold mines in Big Rock were squeezed dry years ago. Even so, that won’t stop a pair of businessmen from the East from trying to squeeze out a little more. One of them has developed a newfangled method for extracting gold—something called “hydraulics”—and they’ve bought up all the old mines to do it. Smoke isn’t sure what to think of. Especially when they hire a small army of gunfighters to protect their mines from sabotage.

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.

No one remembered when he’d come to the mountains - it seemed like Preacher had always been there. He’d seen a world of wonders in the unmapped mountains and forests of the vast North American frontier. In fact, he figured he wouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. But that was before Preacher traveled into the Ferris Range of Wyoming and discovered the city of Nova Roma....

Founded in 1866, The Frontier Overland Company was no ordinary stagecoach operation. To begin with, its founding partners met in a Wyoming saloon brawl. After a raucous burst of punching, cursing, and chair smashing, the last two men standing become friends for life. Two kindred souls with the same fighting spirit, Tucker Cobb and former Texas Ranger Butch Keeling agreed to launch a business together: a brand-new stagecoach line through the wilds of Wyoming . . .

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.

For Smoke and his daughter, Denny, life on the Sugarloaf Ranch is more valuable than all the gold in the world. Which works out fine, since all the gold mines in Big Rock were squeezed dry years ago. Even so, that won't stop a pair of smooth-talking businessmen from trying to squeeze out a little more. One of them has developed a newfangled method for extracting gold-something called "hydraulics" - and he's bought up all the old mines to do it.

Sheriff Jess Carey and his oddball band of sidekicks have pulled off the impossible, taming Hell’s Half Acre, the most lawless town in Texas, infamous for murder, mayhem, prostitution, and every random act of bloodshed imaginable. Now the no-good politicians in Austin have decided it’s cheaper to dump hordes of criminals on Jess Carey’s town than hanging ‘em. In one dreadful week, it seems as if the gates of Hell have burst open.

Once every year, Perley Gates and his brothers lead the Triple-G crew on its annual cattle drive. It's a treacherous journey along the Great Western Trail, with a herd of 2,000 cows on one side and many opportunities for trouble on the other. This year, trouble shows up in the form of a beautiful young woman, her little baby, and her bizarre traveling companion - a colorful old cuss who goes by the name of Possom Smith. They're heading to a settlement called Butcher Bottom, and risking their necks to get there. Perley offers to escort the trio to their destination.