Until Hayden Tilden caught up with him.Smilin’ Jack Paine is one face from the past that Hayden would rather forget, but the man’s sinister grin is permanently etched in his memory, along with the chilling thoughts of Paine’s unspeakable crimes. There seems to be no other way to put that demon to rest than to tell the whole story—from the day Hayden first heard the man’s name to the day he finally wiped the grin off Paine’s face for good.Praise for Lawdog: The Life and Times of Haydon Tilden“Lawdog should assume its rightful place beside other Western classics.” —Peter Brandvold, author of Once Hell Freezes Over“Lawdog has it all. I couldn’t put it down.” —Jack Ballas, author of West of the RiverAbout the Author:J. Lee Butts is the author of 22 published books and numerous magazine articles and short works. His book Brotherhood of Blood was runner-up for the Western Writers of America Spur Award in 2005. He’s worn many hats over the years (teacher, administrator, pool manager, IBM supervisor, and western author), and he and his late wife lived everywhere from Los Angeles to Dallas. Currently he’s hanging those hats back in White Hall, Arkansas.

    A lesser man might just give it up; but Ezekiel Hawthorne isn’t a quitter. While thousands head to the California gold fields in wagons, Ezekiel loads his mule and embarks on an amazing venture across the continent alone, bound for the good soils and abundant waters of Oregon. Savages, tornadoes, and a lack of knowledge don’t slow the man down a bit. It’s a beautiful half-Shoshone woman who has the biggest impact on Ezekiel’s new life.

    The task is ever harder, when you must do your building, carrying the ghosts of a long dead war. The burden gets unbearably heavy when you find yourself the last target of the most powerful megalomaniac in the territory. When you've been beaten, burned out, had your herd rustled, shot, and pursued across the high country, you end up in a pretty poor mood, and go hunting for revenge. The only thing that can save your soul, and keep you from sinking into the abyss, are the friends who find you along the way, and the unexpected, lusty, passion of the woman who heals your heart.

    Matt Hutchins, the lone survivor of a wagon train massacre Found and raised by the Sioux, Matt not only learns the ways of the Sioux, but his survival skills are keenly honed with his tracking abilities used by both the Army and later by the sheriff of a town named Buffalo Flats Matt lives alone on the open plains with his trusted friend and horse ‘Ole Friend, a gift given to him by the Chief Buffalo Robes, the one who taught him how to survive

     In the aftermath, Ethan Brody returns from the war to find everything he knows and loves reduced to nothing but ashes. Hell bent on revenge, he sets off to find the murderous gang, only to have them slip away. Losing his faith, he sets off on a life of bounty hunting, vowing to never again let justice go astray. "Alive" is no longer an option and in the process, the legend of the Rider is born. 1894: Oliver Kingston Dukes a man of remittance finds his way to the town of Adobe Wells, immediately becoming embroiled in the town's struggle with the wealthy and powerful Katy brothers. Enter the Rider, on the trail of the notorious bandit Hector Salazar. He joins Dukes and the townsfolk to take back the town once and for all, and perhaps...take back his own salvation.

    Now Sam is putting down roots with his wife and daughter, and no amount of evil can stand in the way.Secure in their out-of-the-way stronghold, the proprietors of the criminal enterprises never planned on a man like Sam Blaylock—a man who would face the Devil himself to balance the scales. Sam never backed down from a bad situation.Rancho Diablo Western Series: Omnibus includes – Shooter's Cross, Hell On Wheels, The Hold Up, The Matamoros Bull, The Armadillo's Hole Saloon and Shooter York.

    He had no home and no kin, just a horse, a saddle and a pistol he’d won in a bunkhouse poker game.To Lane, though, Flint was the only man who could stand up to the buzzards who’d killed his father.As soon as Flint started making his presence felt around town, Billington sent his hired gun, Owen Thorpe, to get rid of him. But Flint was a whole heap tougher than he looked – and as the land-grabbers soon learned to their cost, he proved to be a hard man to kill.

     On this occasion, the men in question are vicious thugs and killers. They don't give in easy. And mostly he brings them in slung over a saddle. But after tracking and killing a group of merciless bandits, he realises the bloodshed is too much for him. He resigns his badge and rides south to Mexico where he hangs up his guns. The peaceful life Joe is seeking is wrecked when the notorious bandit Gomez Farias guns down his friends. The Hammer of God is roused. The blood that flowed in his former life as lawman was but a trickle compared to the flood unleashed when Joe rides out on the vengeance trail… Hammer of God is a thrilling and classic adventure story set in the Wild West. Praise for Philip McCormac 'You can taste the dust and blood of the Old West on every page.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of Trade Off. Philip McCormac lives in the East Midlands, England, is married with two grown-up children and five grandchildren. He is the author of fourteen Western novels including Son of a Gun and Vengeance Unbound. He is also the author of detective thriller Tone Death.

    Land. Lawlessness. These ingredients do not portend a peaceful life in Nebraska’s Pine Ridge country for Dan McClure. Dan’s not afraid to fire a gun, but after a lifetime of fighting, he would rather wield a paintbrush. When he’s thrust into the middle of a range war, however, he has but two options . . . and Dan’s not one to run away from a fight. Set in 1880s Nebraska, Paint the Hills Red is a story of men—and women—who won’t back down . . . even when it looks as though they should.

    Resistant to the label of Gunfighter, Persimmon vehemently rejects offers to be a gun for hire, preferring to drift aimlessly in a futile effort to outrun his memories. It takes a young boy and his widowed mother to give Persimmon purpose once more. Befriended by a failed writer, the pair take a reluctant journey across the country to help her. What they discover is that happiness sometimes carries a steep price tag. Saving the widow will cost more than they could have imagined. Persimmon must decide whether or not to make the purchase, even if that means paying with his life.

    After a card game with Benny Gellerman, a man good with a gun, but bad with cards, Ketcham decides it is time to head out again. He finds a place to bed down on a lonely New Mexico farm run by old Corely Mattlin and his widowed daughter-in-law, Margaret. Ketcham has his eye on pretty Margaret, but he'd better keep his eyes open wide for trouble. A local rancher named Jeb Ollfinger is trying to run the Mattlins off their land, and he is not above using violence, even murder, to get what he wants. Margaret is sure her husband's killer was one of Ollfinger's men, a gunman named Gellerman. If Ketcham knew what was good for him, he would head out again. But this time he has a job to do first.

     As he rides through the gates of the hellhole called the Wyoming Territorial Prison, Jess Hazzard's only desire is to get far away from people as fast as possible. Sitting atop the old, worn-out sorrel they gave him, he has only his meager gear, his guns, and his reputation. Loathed for being half Apache, feared for his lightning-fast draw and deadly aim, and distrusted wherever he rides, he heads for the mountains to rest his soul and avoid the trouble that has dogged him his whole life. Little does he know his horse and a wounded man will soon set him on a new trail, one that will force him to question his beliefs, and survive being shot, beaten, blinded, and more as life challenges him in ways he never imagined possible. Summer of the Eagles is a story of perseverance and stamina, of a man determined to overcome his past and make his dream of a future a reality.

    His Name Is Smoke Jensen: Mountain Man...Smoke Jensen is the most powerful man on the Sugarloaf frontier--and he's all that stands between a greedy group of Eastern slickers and their schemes for a criminal empire in the Rockies. When Smoke heads back to Boston with his wife, it gives his enemies the opening they'd been waiting for: to kill the mountain man and take over the West.But even on the unfamiliar turf of back alleys and teeming docks, Smoke is more than most men can handle...until his wife is kidnapped. Now Smoke is in a fury and in this fight all the way from Boston back to Dodge City and up to Yellowstone, where a brutal showdown with a gang of hired guns awaits...and where, in a blazing hail of bullets and blood, the legend of the big man is about to grow even bigger... There's Nothing A Man Won't Do To Clear His Name They called him fastest gun alive, but Smoke Jensen is determined to stay on the right side of the law. That is, until he's jumped by six low-life robbers who steal his shirt--and his identity. Smoke's tried for robbery and murder, and sentenced to hang in morning. Someone's out to frame the Mountain Man . . . someone who's made a big mistake. Justice--Mountain Man Style Barely managing to escape on the morning of his hanging, Smoke's going after the desperados who've set him up. The gang thinks they have nothing to fear; they've already divided up the loot and gone their separate ways. But Smoke's going to hunt them down one by one. Because nobody frames the Mountain Man. Nobody who plans on staying alive, that is...

    Cameron Cooke... Elijah Jones is a man with a violent past ... Setting out for the Arizona Territory, Jones seeks to escape his past and live a quieter, gentler life in the vast wilderness of the Mogollon Rim. But men who once made their living with the gun cannot simply walk away. In an untamed land teeming with Apaches and desperadoes, Jones finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a territorial war pitting him against new foes - and old ones... Through showdowns on dusty streets to savage gunfights in the wild, Jones is dogged by the demons of his former life, and realizes he must face them if he ever hopes to leave the trail of the gunman far behind...

    He grew up at a wild time and did what he had to do to survive. The law took one view of it; he took another. And the law wouldn’t get off his back. He did time, broke out of prison. He went north, hoping to leave the past behind. But the past followed him. And now there were murder charges. Whichever way he turned, trouble was right there. This is his account of what happened. Jack was born in Charleston in 1861. His parents died early of cholera and his guardian died when he was fifteen, leaving him penniless and alone. He went west and got work as a cattle drover. He shot an outlaw who was trying to rob him. Another outlaw, named Ibbetson, got away alive. Later, he ran across a cowboy called Skeeter on a cattle drive. They met again in a saloon and Skeeter asked him to help drive a herd of horses. Jack didn’t know they were stolen. He was arrested, went to jail. During his trial, he broke out of the courthouse with another inmate, who shot a courthouse constable. After that, a rope was waiting. He went north and got work on a ranch called Sand River. For a while it looked like he’d outrun trouble. He did the job and stayed clean. But up there, range wars were being fought. Ranchers hired range detectives to handle trouble. To some, they were hired killers. One of them was Ibbetson. When they met again, Jack knew it wouldn’t end well. His past had arrived.