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

Ace and Chance Jensen usually spend Christmas at the Sugarloaf Ranch. But this year, the brothers are heading to Death Valley to claim Chance's prize in a poker game: the deed to a silver mine. Sure, the mine is probably dried up and worthless, but what they don't realize is that half the deed belongs to a ruthless outlaw named Foxx, a rich vein of silver hasn't been tapped yet, and another wealthy mine owner is trying to crush the competition-by killing every miner in the valley....

For Smoke and Sally Jensen, the Sugarloaf Ranch is a glorious stretch of untamed land near the Colorado-Kansas border, the perfect place to stake their claim, raise some cattle, and start a new family. But when a man claiming to be an army colonel arrives in Big Rock—with a well-armed militia—the Jensens’ dream becomes a living nightmare. Colonel Lamar Talbot claims there’s a war looming with the Cheyenne Indians. And only he can save them from a bloody massacre—by launching a bloody counterattack… Smoke and Sally aren’t sure they trust him.

Higbee, Colorado, population 147, is about to become a boomtown. The visionary General Wade Garrison is building a railroad to connect Higbee to the renowned Santa Fe Rail. But a rancher named Ike Clinton has his own selfish reasons for making sure these bands of steel go nowhere - and he’ll go to any lengths to derail Garrison’s plans. Falcon MacCallister owes a war-time debt to the General and answers the call to aid the man in his fight with the Clinton brood.

In the best-selling novels of William W. Johnstone, mountain man Smoke Jensen is a legend. Now, Johnstone presents the adventures of Smoke's long-lost brother Luke, who was reported killed during the Civil War. The war is over and Luke is very much alive, his soul forged by the violence he witnessed on the battlefields. His job is now tracking down the worst outlaws - by any means necessary.

At the Sugarloaf Ranch, Smoke and Sally Jensen prepare to welcome Preacher home for the holidays - unaware that their friend is trailed by a storm full of trouble. On a mission of vengeance, an old trapper is rescued by Ace and Chance Jensen from ruthless outlaws - and wanted by a driven bounty hunter named Luke Jensen. And, just released from prison, a criminal mastermind assembles a vicious gang of cutthroats to extract his final revenge against his enemy - the sheriff of Big Rock, Colorado.

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 . . .

They came from the sea: a former ship captain named Owen Bird who inherited a Texas ranch from his brother.... A former pirate named “Black Terrance” Malone, who has arrived in the once peaceful Rattlesnake Valley with a crew of sea dogs to do his dirty work. And dirty work it would be, as Black Terrance begins a campaign of thieving and threatening, even targeting Bird’s beautiful young niece. Into this storm rides the Loner — Conrad Morgan, son of the legendary gunfighter Frank Morgan.

When Hunter Buchanon rescued a wounded coyote pup — and named him Bobby Lee — he had no idea the cute little varmint would grow up to be such a loyal companion. Coyotes aren’t known to be man’s best friend. Most of them are as fierce and wild as the Black Hills they roam. But Bobby Lee is different. When Hunter is ambushed on the road, Bobby Lee leaps to his defense. And when the attacker tries to shoot Bobby Lee, Hunter returns the favor by hitting the man with a rock.

Life on the straight and narrow is easier said than done for a pair of crooks like Jimmy “Slash” Braddock and Melvin “Pecos Kid” Baker. But these reprobates are doing their damnedest to make an honest go of it. They’ve managed to safely deliver a church organ to a mountain parish when their sometime employer—Chief U.S. Marshal Luther T. “Bleed-’m-So” Bledsoe—recruits them for a job only fools would take.

It’s the kind of job Luke Jensen hates. A millionaire mine owner is willing to pay $5,000 to the man who captures the half-breed outlaw Tom Eagle. Normally, Luke would turn down an offer like this—it smacks too much of being a hired gun. But when the millionaire tells him that Eagle is responsible for killing his son, Luke agrees to take on the job. Which means he’ll have to take the road to hell itself—aka Hard Rock, Montana.

Smoke Jensen was a towering Western hero. Now his two freewheeling, long-lost nephews, Ace and Chance Jensen, are blazing a legendary trail of their own. Riverboat gambling is a blast until hot-headed Chance finds out just what he won in his final hand against a Missouri River gambler named Haggarty. Chance's "prize" is a beautiful Chinese slave girl named Ling. The twins want to set Ling free and keep their cash, but at Fort Benton, Ling gives them the slip, robbing them blind.

In a town like Chugwater, Wyoming, you know who your friends are, who your enemies are, and who your kill-crazy maniacs are. For Duff MacCallister, the last category belongs to Johnny Taylor and his gang. Duff has wrestled with this polecat before, and knows that his bite is worse than his smell. But when Taylor's gang tries to rob a bank - and Duff manages to shoot one and arrest Taylor's brother - the outraged outlaw raises a stink straight out of hell.

A hot meal, a hard drink, and maybe a friendly hand of poker - that's all Dewey "Mac" Mackenzie wants when he drifts into the small town of Harcourt City, Montana. What he gets is a fistful of trouble. When he defends a saloon girl from the unwanted advances of some local toughs, he earns the wrath of the town's powerful namesake, Oscar Harcourt.

Orphaned at the age of seven and adopted by the Indians, Jamie Ian MacCallister grew into a man more at ease in the wilderness than among men. But when the westward strike drove him across the Arkansas Territory into Texas, he finally found himself a home—in the middle of a bloody war. Texans like Jim Bowie and Sam Houston were waging a fierce struggle against Santa Anna's Mexican army, and Jamie MacCallister made the perfect scout for the fledgling volunteer force.

The mountains are brimming with the lure of fortunes — from gold to a booming fur trade. A man at home in this once pristine wilderness, Preacher knows there’s no turning back civilization now. What he doesn’t know is that beyond the plans of some men is a deadly enemy with far more dangerous designs....

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.

In a town like Chugwater, Wyoming, you know who your friends are, who your enemies are, and who your kill-crazy maniacs are. For Duff MacCallister, the last category belongs to Johnny Taylor and his gang. Duff has wrestled with this polecat before, and knows that his bite is worse than his smell. But when Taylor's gang tries to rob a bank - and Duff manages to shoot one and arrest Taylor's brother - the outraged outlaw raises a stink straight out of hell. First, he begins to randomly slaughter innocent townsfolk one by one.

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.

He calls himself The King. Once a respected professor, he was ruined by scandal. Now, he rules his own “country”—an area of western territory where an army of outlaws enforce his laws. Any town he claims as his own must pay “taxes,” collected from bank, stagecoach, and train robberies. When he learns that President Rutherford B. Hayes and General William Tecumseh Sherman are venturing into the far west on a tour of the nation, The King devises a plan to kidnap America’s leaders and expand his empire.

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.