Terrell L. Bowers

Joe Bratt grew up like an unbroken mustang, and trouble never bothers to move out of his way. He scratched and clawed his way through a life of hard knocks and learned three things: fight when you must, never sit down to a fixed game of chance, and never, ever, get involved with a good woman. Joes holds true to his three rules until he meets Raylene Stanfield, a judge's well-educated daughter. That's when his whole world gets turned upside down!

To keep from serving time in jail, Vince Templeton agrees to take on a false identity and go to Surlock, Wyoming. Once there he is to work as a teamster for Charles Huxton and try to prevent a war that is brewing between Huston's Transport and the Yates freight outfit. However, when he falls hard for Jessie Yates, he has the impossible task of winning over a girl who hates him and everyone working for Huxton. When the showdown comes, he must not only save the woman he loves, but also face a deadly gunman named Phoenix Cline....

The war had ended between the Union and the Confederacy. However, the fight was not over for the Kenyon family. Being Yankees, their presence in Three Forks, Texas, is met with hostility and resentment. Then Dave is forced to kill the cousin of a deadly bandit leader, Angel Gervaso, who vows revenge and sends his ganf of cut-throats to plunder and burn Three Forks to the ground. With just a few capable men, the Union boys and pro-Confederates must rally together against a common enemy.

Although the last of the Broken Spoke series (book #4), this book stands alone. Tito Pacheco is forced to kill a man to save the life of an unarmed man, Darby. The brother and his gang swear vengence. Before Tito and Darby get far away, they discover a dead man on the trail. Reporting the dead man to his family has stunning consequences. Tito is forced to kill of the gang chasing them and winds up married with six kids in tow. To escape the gang and protect his new family, Tito returns to Broken Spoke, where he has friends to help. When the deadly gang comes looking, Tito and the people of Broken Spoke battle to rescue one of the town's girls, save the town from a bloody war, and put an end to the vendetta. It's Destiny at Broken Spoke.

Second book in the Broken Spoke series. Luke Mallory's efforts to start a new life in Broken Spoke are interrupted by the abduction of Cassandra Hytower. The kidnappers demand fifty thousand dollars. Worse, it is discovered that the leader of the gang is Quanto, a killer with a personal vendetta against everyone in Broken Spoke. The decision is made to pay the ransom, while Luke recruits a very literate Indian named Joe to track down the gang. Two Ingersol boys, new arrivals to the valley, join the small posse, and Luke sets out to find their hideout. They are barely on the trail when a murder is discovered back at Broken Spoke, a gruesome warning not to try any tricks. Ultimately, with several twists and turns, the kidnappers, the murder and blazing guns sort out a deadly ending...with Crossfire at Broken Spoke!

Book two in the Broken Spoke series...although all books stand alone for a reader. To become a man of importance at Wells Fargo was Luke Mallory's dream, so it's a sad day when he is unjustly fired...for trusting a crooked employee. Returning to Broken Spoke and Timony Fairbourn, the woman he loves, is all the more frustrating because she is mad at him for leaving her in the first place. As usual, trouble has found its way to Broken Spoke, and this time greedy rancher Preston Hytower is planning to divert the local creek water to his own special cattle and ruin the farmers. Plus he is an abusive husband and plans to steal the entire valley. If Hytower won't obey the laws of common decency, Luke decides he might respond to Gun Law at Broken Spoke!

First book of the Broken Spoke series. Introduces Luke Mallory and a host of entertaining characters...plus one mangy cat. Opening the story, Luke works for Wells Fargo and wants to be an agent, because the position is one of importance and respect. However, to get the appointment, Luke has to deliver a load of barbed wire into the middle of a range war between farmers and ranchers. Second, he has to survive the delivery and can do so only by somehow stopping the war himself.

Jerrod Danmyer's family was among the first of those to migrate and establish a ranch near the town of Eden in Kansas. Ten years ago, Stover Gates brought his family from the coal mines of Ohio. But soon after their arrival, Stover's brother was killed by Jerrod's brother, starting a blood feud that continues to rage. When Stover's daughter, Marian is rescued after an accident by Jerrod, the pair quickly fall in love. Now they must face not only the wrath of the feuding familys, but a plague of locusts that threaten to destroy the entire valley. Some folks see the pestilence as a sign from God, a chance to repent and be more charitable. But others see it as a chance to line their pockets, even resorting to murder to get what they want!

The Chinese community usually handled its own problems without outside help, relying on the powerful tongs to dispense protection and punishment. But when hundreds of Chinese workers began disappearing without a trace -- a few at a time, or a whole work gang -- Kim Lee contacted the U.S. Marshal. Deputy Reese Corbett arrives from Sacramento to look into the situation. Given the climate following the Chinatown riots, it was not unlikely that some vigilante group was murdering the Chinese. What other explanation could there be? Reese enlists a half-Chinese interpreter named Alley Cat(after first buying, losing and then rescuing her) and a rambunctious mountain man to find out what was going on. Increasingly, all trails led to the isolated hills of Snake Canyon...and a deadly secret that could get him and his two friends killed!

Don't go by the terrible cover on this book. I think it is one my best best efforts...at least back then. Like all authors, I tend to think my current writting is superior. But this story was a favorite. A man, Lassito, is tracking ex-Quantrill men down and forcing them into fights...his personal justice for what they did to the town of Lawrence, Kansas. But he arrives in San Marco and discovers a Chinese slave ring, where most of the entire town is involved. To buck the half-dozen barons and take on their army of gunmen is an impossible task. However, after saving a Chinese girl from a beating and possible death, Lassito rolls up his sleeves and takes on all comers! Naturally, there's a hopeless romance too...hopeless, because the only way he can escape his fame is to die!