Ralph Compton

Former big-city detective John McBride is an easygoing man - until people rub him the wrong way. So he's less than please when he sees three hanged men outside the town of Rest and Be Thankful, and the local lawman warns him to behave if he doesn't want to end up swinging right beside them. Driven by the plight of the terrified citizenry - one beautiful woman in particular - McBride vows to take on the fast-gun marshal, and evil mayor and his cruel son, and a small army of hired gunmen. With the help of a mysterious white-haired preacher. McBride will give the townsfolk reason to be thankful - and their vicious tormentors eternal rest in hell.

Unable to read about his bloody exploits in the newspaper, serial killer Jeeter Frost finds a teacher to help him, while the townsfolk of Coffin Varnish, hoping to cash in on his infamy, put his victims on display, to which he strongly and violently objects.

FEUDING FRIENDSFor years, the Circle T ranch and the D/P ranch have existed in Sweet Grass Valley. Separated by the Rio Largo river, both ranches have managed to prosper-mostly due to the ranch owners Kent Tovey and Dar Pierce, who are the best of friends.But all that is about to be challenged. Two new ranch hands are fomenting a cycle of violence between the ranches-with a ruthless gang waiting to pick their bones clean after they destroy one another. One loyal cowboy caught in the carnage knows the truth. And when the Circle T and the D/P can no longer be protected, they must be avenged.

When it comes to taking lives, Lucius Stark is just about the meanest mongrel who ever aimed a gun in West Texas. For him, killing means making money, and if the price is right, he'll do the job. But even the hardest of men have a soft spot.... A KILLER BETRAYED When Stark grows too fond of a woman he is hired to kill in a range war, his client shows his displeasure by shooting him in the back. Stark is saved by the Butcher family- the very ranchers he was paid to eliminate. But when the Butchers end up slaughtered without mercy, Stark sets out to deliver his own brand of vengeance...free of charge.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, a blacksmith from Missouri decides to travel to Texas to purchase a cattle herd. He hopes to sell the herd up north and turn a profit for his family to live on. However, the blacksmith had not reckoned on the dangers of the lawless plains, and is set upon and killed by a band of outlaws. When news of his death reaches his family, his eldest daughter straps on her father's colts and sets off on her father's chestnut mare, using her father's name in a personal campaign for revenge!

On a frontier torn by war and renegades, they carried a cargo more valuable than gold... Miners dug for fortunes. Soldiers died on open plains. And a few brave men drove the wooden freight wagons into the wild land. Now, master Western novelist Ralph Compton tells the real story of the tough-as-leather men who blazed the way into the untamed frontier. THE SUNDOWN RIDERS Once they drove longhorns. Now Mac Tunstall and his band of Texans must take a shipment of Winchesters by rail and wagon all the way to the U.S. Army in Austin. But from the moment the waggoneers set out, violence and treachery stalk their trail. From Dodge to the Brazos, half the outlaws on the frontier are aiming to get hold of an arsenal that could blow the West wide open. And Mac and his men don't see one danger until it's too late - four beautiful headstrong women determined to share a trail of courage and tears all the way to the end.

The only riches Texans had after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history blazing trail drives. THE SHAWNEE TRAIL Long John Coons, the Cajun son of a conjuring woman, was driving 2,000 head of cattle north from Texas to the railroad in Kansas - through Indian Territory and outlaw strongholds. At his side was a beautiful woman with a sordid past, three ex-cattle rustlers, some renegade Indians, Mexican vasqueros and a straight-laced young trail boss. And while Long John tried to keep his hot-headed crew from killing each other before they reached the end of the line, the biggest danger was waiting up ahead where an all-out war in Kansas make the Texans fight together, or die at the same time.

A favorite of western fans.Dagstaff has to drive 4,000 longhorns over a thousand miles up the Palo Duro trail, facing furious storms, Comanches, treacherous rivers-and a hired killer among his drivers.

Miners dug the fortunes. Soldiers died on open plains. And a few brave men drove the wooden freight wagons into the wild land. Now, master Western novelist Ralph Compton tells the real story of the tough-as-leather men who first blazed the way into the untamed frontier. THE SUNDOWN RIDERS Texas for the pioneers who streamed out of Missouri, it was a land of dreams and freedom. Veteran wagon boss Chance McQuade, a man deadly with a pistol and Sharps, had signed on to take a hundred families there. But the man who hired McQuade was joining the wagon train, and turning it into a brawling, rolling city of sin and violence. Now, on the hard drive West, McQuade faces Kiowa, lightening storms, and killers behind his back - all to reach a promised land that's erupting into war.

Taking up the custom-made Colts of his late father, who was murdered in the streets of El Paso by Mexico's notorious Sandlin gang, Wes Stone trades his aspirations of becoming a lawman for his thirst for vengeance.