Showing results by author "Ralph Compton" in All Categories

The grit and glory that became a trademark of Ralph Compton’s best-selling Westerns is on full display in this thrilling tale. Here Deputy U.S. Marshal Augustus Crane rides to Rawhide Flat to collect accused robber Judah Walsh for a trial in Virginia City. But Crane gets more trouble than he bargained for when the townsfolk decide Walsh can’t leave unless he reveals where he hid the loot.

A senator's daughter has joined a doomsday cult - and it'll take a man like Buck Fletcher to get her back. To find her, Buck must elude a band of Chiricahua Apaches on the warpath and bring the cult leader madman a little doom of his own.

With his hard-hitting Ralph Compton novels, Joseph A. West has laid claim to frequent spots on the USA Today best-seller list. In this thundering novel, Deputy U.S. Marshal Matt Battles has been dispatched to infiltrate a band of ruthless gunfighters gathering in Slaughter Canyon. Battles would like to avoid bloodshed, but if push comes to shove, the deputy marshal has never been one to shy away from a fight.

Down and out West, two friends decide to make a name for themselves as bounty hunters. But the job is easier said than done. Going after one of the most wanted outlaws alive, they better learn fast - or lose their good-for-nothing lives.

Their friendship started with a schoolyard tussle. Now the need for revenge is what binds Luke Croft and Red Connover together. When Luke taught himself how to fire a Colt, he never imagined he'd turn into a gunman. But when his stepfather's dodgy business dealings turn his life upside down, Luke asks Red to help him destroy the man who murdered his kin. The road to vengeance is long and hard, and the two friends who are barely out of boyhood will need all the help they can get if they want to catch a cold-blooded killer.

Haunted by memories of the Civil War, Coy Jennings just wants to find work as a ranch hand and to begin saving for a small farm where he could finally enjoy peace and quiet. Arriving in the Texas settlement of Phantom Hill, Coy soon befriends a damaged but likable stable hand by the name of Ira Dalton and hopes for a future with a lovely widowed mother. In order to make the Hill a decent place to settle down, Coy must wage a new kind of war against ruthless ranch owner Lester Sinclair, his sadistic sons, and the murderous band of cattle rustlers who work for them.

Jerome Frederick Kincannon is a medicine man—an apothecary by trade and a healer at heart. But when his wife and young son are murdered by the notorious Benjamin Gang, his world crumbles around him. Kincannon can’t forgive the four Benjamin brothers for their transgressions, and he’ll never forget. His ambitions from that day forward are simple: kill them all.

Before hearing the call of the Lord, Paul had seen more than his share of sin - mostly his own. But since he came to minister to the small town of Pueblito Verde, most of what he sees are tamer transgressions. Knowing his own past, Paul believes the occasional mistake doesn' t make someone truly evil. But some men are more evil than others. When the brutal Jack Kerrigan and his band of ruffians hit town, Paul' s new life starts to go bad.

Nathan Stone was a living legend in the West as a lawman, as an outlaw, as a gambler, as a wanderer through the wildest towns and terrain. He blazed a vengeance trail, giving no quarter and asking for none. Fearlessly, he played his cards and used his Colt .45s as best he could in games of chance, skill, and savagery, for stakes of life or death.

His wife is gone to tuberculosis, his reputation was lost in the war, most of his life has already passed by, and now, even his horse has been taken by colic. All Carpenter has left are the men from his Army company. During the journey to California to reunite with them, he strikes up a friendship with Rafael Silva, an educated man making for the same town to start up a rifle factory. When they arrive, Carpenter's former brothers-in-arms actually try to run Silva out of town, despite the much-needed factory. There's trouble afoot....

Nathan Stone was a living legend in the West as a lawman, as an outlaw, as a gambler, as a wanderer through the wildest towns and terrain. He blazed a vengeance trail, giving no quarter and asking for none. Fearlessly, he played his cards and used his Colt .45s as best he could in games of chance, skill, and savagery, for stakes of life or death. Now he was riding on a course that would test his rawhide nerve and lightning draw against the likes of Doc Holliday, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, the fleeing James brothers, and the incredible John Wesley Hardin....

Young doctor Gabriel Kincaid has come west to help an aging colleague who is straining to deal with the demands of a growing town, but Kincaid is looking to do more than just experience the challenges of frontier medicine. He’s determined to start a new life. But the trials he faces aren’t confined to the doctor’s surgery. After an incident in a saloon, Kincaid finds himself with a new nickname: Dr. Death. It’s dangerous to have a reputation as a good man with a gun. In this world, there will always be someone who wants to test you.

The people of Meridian, Colorado, live and die by coal mining, and when the railroad bypasses them, their livelihood is in peril. However, they discover that for a hefty sum of money they can create a spur line and save the town. A hefty sum the town does not have. Their only hope is former gambler Asa Newcombe. The townspeople pool their money so Newcombe can enter the big poker game in Golden Junction, and as much as he wants to leave his past life behind, the whole town is counting on him.

David Robbins continues the proud tradition of Ralph Compton's Western novels with enough hardscrabble heroes, blazing gun fights, and twisted villains to fill a corral. Bluff City is a booming silver mining town full of pigeons to pluck. When two of its wealthiest citizens devise plans to rob their neighbors legally and illegally, only Clay Adams stands in their way.

Chip Chippendale met Ransom Barnes after the War Between the States, when the two cowboys drove a herd up from Texas together. But when Chip first laid eyes on Wyoming, he knew he was home, and the two friends split off on different trails. Each man went on to own his own ranch, but when Ransom's home is attacked and burned by a marauding band of Cheyenne warriors, he is faced with ruin - and makes matters worse by gunning down the Cheyenne leader's son.

Reporter Lester Booker joins legendary gunfighter Rance March on the trail of a dangerous outlaw to learn how the West was really won.

USA Today best-selling author Joseph A. West writes in a style befitting the literary legacy of legendary Western author Ralph Compton. In Stryker’s Revenge, Lieutenant Steve Stryker is bound and determined to settle an old score with Rake Pierce, who left him a scarred and broken man. Now Rake is running guns to the Apaches, and Stryker sees an opportunity for payback that he just can’t pass up.

Charlie Pike is fulfilling Judge Henry Dryden's dying wish by escorting him to Texas. But an outlaw out for revenge is on their trail, determined that they will never reach their destination....

In the grand tradition of legendary author Ralph Compton comes this tense, thrill-a-minute Western. Deputy Marshal Logan Kane is in for one tough ride. He’s got six ruthless convicts caged in a prison wagon, and it’s his job alone to transport them safely across treacherous, unforgiving terrain. Holding off rustlers, outlaw gangs, lynch mobs, and the criminals’ free-riding cohorts will keep Kane—and his trusty Colt—plenty busy.

The only folk left behind in Apache Creek are ghosts, including Marshall Sam Pace. Three years of solitude have turned Sam into a phantom, but when a woman on the run stumbles into town, the former lawman must protect her and make use of gunslinger skills long out of practice...