Matt Braun

On October 26, 1881, three outlaws lay dead in a dusty vacant lot in Tombstone, Arizona. Standing over them - Colts smoking - were Wyatt Earp, his two brothers Morgan and Virgil, and a gun-slinging gambler named Doc Holliday....

Ben Thompson carved out a name for himself as a gambler and a shootist - from Dodge City to the Rio Grande. But settling down in Austin with a wife and young son didn't settle Ben's taste for the sporting life....

Earl Brannock was a gambling man who fled the fires of the Civil War and found a boomtown called Denver - in a land being built on dreams, luck, and gold....

For decades, the Texas plains ran with the blood of natives and settlers, as pioneers carved out ranch land from ancient Indian hunting grounds and the US Army turned the tide of battle....

Clint Brannock has been commissioned to track down the infamous vigilante Miguel Ortega and put an end his violent revolution....

In the harsh land of New Mexico, Clint and Virgil Brannock keep a sharp eye on their ranch....

The Brannock brothers have very different dreams for their lives in the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest....

Born a slave, Jim Beckwith forged his own path to freedom as a mountain man. But when a wealthy trading company owner offered to pay him to live among the Crow Indians, Beckwith accepted the deal - and discovered another way of life that changed him forever....

He came from the American South, a gentleman by breeding, a dentist by training, a gambler by vocation....

Print Oliver gave his blood and his soul for the Confederacy. Then he came home to find his family ranch under siege from Union carpetbaggers and his neighbors turned against him....

A rare breed of bulldog and bloodhound, private detective Luke Starbuck has been hired to ferret out the Judas working for the Central Pacific—a mastermind behind a string of train robberies. The target: gold shipments from the Frisco mint....

In a place called No Man's Land, Texas rancher Ben Langham hired Luke Starbuck for his loyalty and toughness gained by riding with Rip Ford's Texas volunteers....

He came off the frontier: a buffalo hunter, a gambler, a loner. In Abilene, he won a saloon at cards and earned the fear of a lawless town. From then on, Jake Kincaid would not be stopped....

In Matt Braun’s The Last Stand, the land of Five Civilized Tribes is stolen from its people by the Federal government. Chitto Starr, a full-blood Cherokee, ignites an armed rebellion - and brings an honest, determined lawman onto his trail....

Luke Starbuck knew Death’s designs were as uncompromising as justice, and as cold and final as an unmarked grave....

It is 1881. El Paso, the wildest border town in an untamed Texas, is at a crossroads....

The Osage Indians lost their ancestral freedom on a windswept reservation in Oklahoma. Now, in the Roaring Twenties, the land is spewing black gold; oil has been found, and every Osage owns a share of the rights....

Texas rancher Ben Langham left his sprawling inheritance to the man he trusted most: Luke Starbuck. Once Starbuck had dreamed of having land of his own. Now he dreams of finding the man who gunned down Langham - and bringing him to justice....

Matt Braun turns the classic elements of tough men and rough land into westerns that ring with authenticity....

The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers....