Showing results by author "Ralph Cotton" in All Categories

Jeston Nash, Quiet Jack Smith, and a mysterious black man named Big Shod find themselves in the midst of Chief Red Cloud’s war. They come looking to sell some stolen horses to the cavalry and find themselves fighting against outlaws, warriors and the US government - not just for their lives, but for the chance to do what’s right. 

Jeston Nash bears a striking resemblance to his cousin Jesse Woodson James of Clay County Missouri. After killing a Yankee soldier in self-defense, Jeston meets his cousins, Jesse and Frank, and joins them to fight in Quantrill's guerilla forces. Later, after the war, he rides with the James-Younger gang as they invent their special brand of bank and train robbery. All the while, Jeston seeks vengeance against Daniel Zanone of the Free Kansas Militia - the man responsible for the death of his child.

Jeston Nash knew horses—he'd stolen enough of them in his time. But the lookalike cousin of Jesse James was going respectable, almost. Then, in a New Orleans teeming with drunks and blue uniforms, he sold a horse to a well-bred lady. It was the biggest mistake of his careers.

In a chaotic blast of gunfire, the James Gang fled a posse's attack—and the infamous Jesse threw his cousin Jeston Nash a hoard of stolen cash. But dodging the law with thirty thousand dollars in a dusty carpetbag is a risky proposition. Hoping to lie low in the mountains of the Northwest, Jeston and his partner, Quiet Jack, find themselves on a journey into the dark heart of human nature—and deadly animal instinct....

In a hail of thunder and gunfire, Jeston Nash fled a new Orleans billiards hall with a land deed in one hand, a blazing pistol in the other. He'd won his gamble with Quick Quintan Cordell fair and square. But in seconds, violence flared, Cordell lay dead, and Sheriff Pat Garret's voice still rang in Nash's ears...somewhere, someday, they would meet again....Jeston Nash learned about robbery from his cousin, Jesse James. But it was the wild outlaw Billy the Kid who taught him that even a wanted man is just a man. Nash catches up with the kid in a dusty town of drunken bottle-shooters.

Federal Deputy Sullivan Hart thinks he has broken up the outlaw organization Los Pistoleros after he arrests its leader, J.T. Priest - the man who killed his father. But Priest escapes from jail and he's determined to rebuild his criminal empire. Only Quick Charlie Sims knows where Priest is headed. And Hart is none too sure he can trust the wily gambler, who has his own debt to settle with Los Pistoleros.

In Fighting Men by Pulitzer Prize nominee Ralph Cotton, Civil War veteran and former schoolmaster Sherman Dahl rides the Southwest as a gun for hire. Known by both the lawful and the lawless as “The Teacher,” Dahl sells his services to those seeking justice - and is relentless in his pursuit of wanted men.

Hired to help steal $50,000 in gold bullion, ex-Pinkerton Avrial "Rock" Rochenbach must earn the trust of some of the West's most notorious outlaws-while protecting his true identity as an undercover U.S. Secret Service Agent.

Blowing into Kindred, New Mexico, like a sandstorm, mercenary Sherman ''The Teacher'' Dahl quickly locates his prey and guns them down in a blazing firefight. But Dahl's troubles are only just beginning. The town's power-hungry marshal doesn't take kindly to Dahl's brand of justice and he's determined to end the hired killer's career once and for all.

Old ways and new clash in head-on confrontation: When journeyman hit man Ray Dylan agrees to look in on Sami Bloom, former mistress of a deceased Canadian crime financier, he realizes he must keep his profession a secret. What he doesn’t realize is how difficult that is now that he has fallen for this warm-hearted beauty. While he struggles with the idea of confiding to her about his secret past, Dylan learns that Sami Bloom has some secrets of her own - and her secrets reach into the upper echelons of the very organization he works for. 

The Traybo brothers have a reputation for being gentleman outlaws - the kind who will make polite chatter as they take your life savings. But Ranger Samuel Burrack has no sympathy for those who show poor manners when it comes to obeying the law. He's traveled as far as the Mexican Badlands to pick up the Traybo brothers' ex-cohort, Fatch Hardaway, to lead him to his prey. Burrack isn't alone in his pursuit.

A killer storm - In the dark of night during a raging storm, a criminal is on the loose in the Arizona badlands. His name is Wilson Orez. Half-Apache and a former cavalry scout, Orez is skilled with weapons, seasoned in the desert, and trained to keep a cool head while death lurks all around him. Or when it springs from his own hands. Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack knows the only way to stop Orez is to kill him.

Arizona Territory Ranger Sam Burrack knows all too well that criminals don't concern themselves with consequences. So it's no surprise to him when Big Silver's sheriff, Sheppard Stone, makes an enemy of wealthy cattle rancher Edsel Centrila, whose son thinks he's above the law. After Stone refuses a large payoff to let Centrila's son out of jail, Centrila throws all of his money into buying up Big Silver, putting gunmen on every corner, aiming right at the sheriff's office.

Ralph Cotton casts a long shadow as one of the finest practitioners of Western fiction to ever set pen to paper. Burnished with the unmistakable character of the Old West, Escape from Fire River showcases Cotton at the height of his form. There’s not a man alive who can outdraw Lawrence Shaw, but that doesn’t mean he’s invulnerable. Garris “The Cat” Cantro and his band of miscreants are hellbent on securing a fortune in gold.

Lawrence Shaw still has the reputation as the fastest gun alive. But since the death of his beloved Rosa, his shots have come out of a bottle. Then a friend gets Shaw a job helping a widow with her ranch, and Fast Larry sees the glimmer of a second chance. Unfortunately the Barrows Brothers Gang...

Adventure, action and dark humor galore, delivered Ralph Cotton style, in his fictional take on the real-life DEA - FBI joint Operation Swordfish, a covert effort launched by the two agencies in the early 1980s. Meet Eddie Vango - Chicago gambling debt collector for the Outfit, the lovely Leslie Wright, and ex-con Delbert Moss as they make their way through the ranks of South Florida Drug Lords and take a giant share of the underworld’s operating capital while the drug world is busy 'replacing' its leadership.  

When Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack arrives in Mesa Grande with a few outlaws in tow, he finds the town in chaos. The sheriff's just been shot, and the new deputy - supposedly out in search of the gunman - is acting suspicious. Now it's up to Burrack to sort out who can be trusted and who needs to be put behind bars. But just as he starts putting the pieces together, a new kind of threat descends on Mesa Grande: Scalp hunters ride in - with a band of wrathful Apache warriors hot on their trail.

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack has something of a reputation for finishing what he sets out to do - usually with a shot from his Winchester. He'd been on the trail of five gunmen for days. Then there was four. And he doesn't plan on stopping until every member of the notorious Golden Riders is behind bars or underground. But when a few of the riders escape in a jailbreak, word gets back to gang leader Braxton Kane that his brother fell under the gun of a lawman. Now Burrack is both hunter and hunted.

Trouble follows horse trader Will Summers as soon as he sets foot in Dark Horses, Mexico. A party of men is intent on hanging Summers, believing him to be a horse thief, but not before they take him to their boss - Ansil Swann, the very man Summers is delivering four horses to. Will is saved from the hangman's noose when the men are waylaid by Ansil's beautiful wife, Bailey. Only Bailey has an agenda of her own, one that lands Will right in the middle of a deadly shootout.

Like father, like son. Arizona Territory Ranger Sam Burrack rides the border badlands to Iron Point hoping to capture Ozzie Cord, a mercenary who killed a sheriff back in Mesa Grande. Cord escaped jail once but won't get away this time.... But as Sam nears his prey, the trail of scalped bodies makes it clear that someone else has a vendetta.