Showing results by author "J.A. Johnstone" in All Categories

Roaming the west with Doc is a band of wild outlaws including a pair of hate-filled ex-cons and the voluptuous Zenobia “Zee” Swallow, Doc’s kill-crazy lady. The gang have been on a killing spree, leaving a trail of bodies near Ty Brannigan’s Powderhorn spread in Wyoming’s Bear Paw Mountains. U.S. marshals want Ty to help them track down Smilin’ Doc’s bunch. But when the hunt puts the Brannigan clan in the outlaws’ sights, Ty and his kin take justice into their own hands—and deliver it with a furious, final vengeance.

The Scottish Highlands, 1885. Two men, brandishing knives, attack a young woman outside a pub. Duff MacCallister steps in and saves her — killing one of the assailants. Big mistake. The attacker was the sheriff’s son, and now MacCallister is marked for death. His only hope: America. Here, in the sprawling land of dreams, Duff hopes to start a new life with his American cousins. Unfortunately, the sheriff’s deputies are tracking him down — with nine of the deadliest cutthroats money can buy.

Building a ranch takes heart and grit. Smoke and Sally Jensen are more than capable of meeting the challenges of shaping the land, raising the livestock, and establishing their brand. But Smoke wasn’t always an entrepreneur. He’s more apt to settle accounts with a fast draw than a checkbook. And when he learns his old friend Preacher has been ambushed by outlaws, he wastes no time saddling up and hitting the vengeance trail with his fellow mountain men Audie and Nighthawk.

Those Jensen boys, Ace and Chance, find themselves on the wrong side of the law - and the raw end of justice - inside the meanest, dirtiest prison in the Arizona territory.

On the rolling Missouri River, a riverboat of fur traders, a US senator, and Prussian royalty are all heading to the Yellowstone from St. Louis. Preacher's onboard because the nation's fate depends on the passengers landing safe and sound. But it won't be easy.

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....

If anyone can get a shipment of brides to the church on time, it's Bo Creel and Scratch Morton. But this time, they'll have to cross hell and high water to escort four marriage-bound beauties to a remote gold-mining town in Alaska. The brides-to-be include a dangerously attractive widow, her sweet-hearted niece, and two of their friends. The roadblocks to the altar include a lecherous saloon owner, a lovesick sailor, and a gang of hired guns. And that's just for starters....

Shotgun Johnny Greenway thought he'd hit rock bottom when he lost his wife and son, hung up his badge, and hit the bottle. But a pretty young woman gave him a second chance. Offered him a job riding shotgun for the Reverend's Temptation Gold Mine. Gave him a reason to live. But even she can't save him when the Starrett gang tries to rob the gold—and Johnny kills their leader . . .

A legend among bounty hunters, Luke Jensen is called to track down a deranged Yankee-turned-outlaw with a burning passion to torch the prairies, torment the townsfolks, and turn all he sees into a smoldering cinder....

n the darkest days of the Civil War, Neville Goldsmith set the world on fire. As Captain for the Union Army, he marched with General Sherman through Georgia, setting homes and cities ablaze with sadistic glee. For Goldsmith, starting fires was a lifelong obsession. And when the war ended, he set his sights on the great American West—to burn it all to the ground. Years later, Luke Jensen learns about a series of fires wreaking havoc from the Dakota Territory to Kansas.

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.

Mountain Man Smoke Jensen's long-lost brother Luke Jensen is a dead shot scarred by war - the perfect formula for a bounty hunter. And he's cunning, and fierce enough to bring down the deadliest outlaws of his day.... Luke Jensen has earned this bounty, hunting down the violent man charged with murdering a preacher's daughter. The outlaw Judd Tyler confesses to many crimes, but not the girl's murder. And he tells Luke they won't reach the town of White Fork alive because a corrupt sheriff does the bidding of a cattle baron, and that man's son is the true killer.

Three weeks before Christmas, the little town of Chug Water in Wyoming Territory is stunned by a brutal crime. The mayor's family has been slaughtered in cold blood on their ranch outside of Raw Hide Butte. As the townsfolk gather to pay their last respects, Duff MacCallister saddles up to go after the killers. He returns with two outlaws - a cold-blooded, nasty pair of snakes, Jesse and T. Bob Cave. But the day before they're sentenced to hang, the Cave brothers escape their fate...

Gold. Silver. Cold hard cash. Stagecoach guard Red Ryan and his driver Buttons Muldoon have ridden shotgun on some pretty valuable cargo in their day. But they're about to learn - the hard way - that the most dangerous cargo of all is human. They've been hired to escort a cowardly traitor facing an army court martial in New Orleans. Every hired killer in Texas wants him dead, including gun-handy Hannah Huckabee, a woman with a mysterious past and an agenda of her own. But she's just one of the dangers they'll face along the way.

Framed for murder, Dewey “Mac” McKenzie is running for his life. Though Mac’s never even made a pot of coffee, he talks his way onto a cattle drive heading west — as a chuckwagon cook. Turns out he has a natural talent for turning salt pork and dried beans into culinary gold. He’s as good with a pot and pan as he is with a gun — which comes in handy on a dangerous trail drive beset with rustlers, hostile Indians, ornery weather, and deadly stampedes. Mac can hold his own with any cowboy twice his age. At least until the real showdown begins....

In all the horrific corners of the Civil War, there was no hell worse than Andersonville, the Yankee prison camp run by evil, sadistic General Thomas Wainwright. In the war's aftermath, a survivor of Andersonville summons Joe Buckhorn to New Orleans and asks the gunslinger to kill the general - not simply for revenge, but to stop another atrocity. Wainwright has seized control of Wagontongue, a township on the edge of the Arizona desert, and he rules it as brutally as he once did Andersonville. With an iron grip on the town's only source of water, he keeps the locals cowering.

Holt’s latest job is in Devil’s Gulch in Colorado Territory. But wiping out bands of bank robbers is just the beginning. More disorder is brewing, and the skittish mayor has handpicked Holt as the new sheriff. Holt is what the town needs: a mercenary with a badge, a loaded Remington, and a deadeye-aim for trouble. Devil’s Gulch has the vigilance committee. The man behind it—Joe Mullen, the largest rancher and mine owner in the valley—isn’t keen on an outsider like Holt muscling in on a good thing. Mullen already has his hand in all the crime in Devil’s Gulch.

In his mountain-man days, Elwood “Firestick” McQueen was practically a living legend. His hunting, tracking, and trapping skills were known far and wide. But it was his deadly accuracy with a rifle that earned him the Indian name “Firestick.” His two best buddies are Malachi “Beartooth” Skinner—whose knife was as fatal as a grizzly’s chompers—and Jim “Moosejaw” Hendricks, who once wielded the jawbone of a moose to crush his enemies in the heat of battle. Of course, things are different nowadays.

There are some things in this world that can't be stopped. Like progress, a moving train, and the American Dream. When the bigwigs in Washington decide to build a transcontinental railroad to the West Coast, they need a man who's just as unstoppable to clear a path through Mexican territory. That man is Jamie MacCallister. Jamie knows it's a tough job. The territory is overrun with Apaches. The Apaches are gunning for a fight. And the first patrol sent in by the president has already been ambushed, kidnapped, and most likely killed.

No gun. No horse. No water or food. And worse yet: No idea how he ended up in the middle of a desert with a bullet in his leg and a bump on his head. That's the sorry situation Matt Jensen wakes up to - dazed and confused - until he slowly pieces together what happened. The last thing he remembers: He agreed to help out a friend of Duff MacCallister's. A pretty lady and her husband at a horse ranch. He also recalls their cross-country trip through hell to deliver the horses safely to market. That's when the outlaws showed up. That's when the shooting began.