Showing results by author "J.A. Johnstone - with" in All Categories

When Duff MacCallister sees smoke rising from his neighbor’s ranch, he knows that something is very wrong. But he isn’t prepared for what he finds: smoldering buildings, a rancher and his wife brutally slaughtered, and a 14-year-old survivor who could not save her parents. Now, Duff is going after the killers — and his only companion is the headstrong girl who refuses to be left behind.

Gold. Silver. Cold hard cash. Stagecoach guard Red Ryan and his driver Buttons Muldoon have ridden shotgun on some pretty valuable cargo in their day. But they're about to learn - the hard way - that the most dangerous cargo of all is human. They've been hired to escort a cowardly traitor facing an army court martial in New Orleans. Every hired killer in Texas wants him dead, including gun-handy Hannah Huckabee, a woman with a mysterious past and an agenda of her own. But she's just one of the dangers they'll face along the way.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Will Tanner earned his badge the old-fashioned way. He shot the bad guys, saved the good guys, and won the fear and respect of everyone in between. That’s how legends are born. But when he visits a friend at his ranch and ends up confronting a trigger-happy horse thief, Will earns the wrath of the deadliest, lowlife killers west of the Mississippi. This is how legends die....Turns out Will Tanner is nothing but a moving target on a blood-soaked trail of revenge.

As a young man, John Bannack worked hard on his brother's farm—until times got tough and his brother grew desperate. Desperate enough to rob a bank. Unfortunately, John's brother left a trail that led straight to the Bannack farm. When a posse showed up to make an arrest, John made a fateful decision: He confessed to his brother's crime. Sacrificed his freedom for the sake of his brother's family. And doomed himself to a hard, hellish life in a rat-hole state prison.

Elwood's deputy, "Moosejaw" Hendricks is one of the fastest draws in the territory, and it's the best kept secret in the West. But when Moosejaw guns down three notorious outlaws in an attempted bank robbery, word gets around. And news travels fast. So fast that every tin horn west of the Mississippi heads for Buffalo Peak to prove they're the fastest gun. These half-cocked lunatics want to challenge Moosejaw to a showdown.

Ever since the silver market crashed, the mining town of Dead Broke has been awfully quiet. The local marshal—legendary gunman Duncan "Mick" MacMicking—doesn't have much to do besides outshoot the occasional greenhorn looking to challenge him. But all this peace and quiet is about to end. Mayor Nugget has unearthed a mineral to rival his famous "Hope Diamond of Silver." He calls it the "Zinc of Zion," a 1,776-pound boulder of pure zinc carbonate. And when he announces his discovery, the quiet boomtown of Dead Broke goes boom—again—with a vengeance.

Two of the Johnstones’ most legendary heroes—the rugged mountain man known as Preacher and the Scottish clan rancher Jamie Ian MacCallister, here together for the first time—are forced to choose sides in a blood-soaked battle for the heart and soul of a nation divided. This is not the American dream they were looking for. This is a nightmare. A brutal, blood-drenched frontier war that two heroic men must fight and win—or one struggling nation will never come together. For liberty and justice for all.

Smoke Jensen has journeyed up to the Colorado Rockies to a sell a prized bull to a local rancher. Instead, the rancher and his wife have been mercilessly slaughtered by outlaws only moments before Smoke's arrival. In a hail of bullets, Smoke pulverizes two of the murderers and drags two others to the town of Brown Spur for justice. Come hanging day, the two killers are on the way to the gallows when a thundering gang of raiders crashes into town and rescues them from the jaws of death.

Two outlaw brothers have been leaving a blood-trail on their way to infamy on the western frontier. Until bounty hunter Luke Jensen catches one of the black-hearted Kroll brothers away from his gang. But while Luke is trying to get Mordecai Kroll from jail to justice, he's ambushed by the Kroll gang and taken prisoner. And that draws Luke's own brother, Smoke Jensen, into the fight, guns drawn....

Deadwood, South Dakota. Miners flock there seeking fortunes, while cardsharps, bandits, and businessmen seek to deprive those who strike gold by means fair and foul. Legendary former lawman Seth Bullock plans to keep the peace by any means necessary—especially when his good friend, President Theodore Roosevelt, is expected in town to celebrate the anniversary of Deadwood’s founding.

Breck Wallace was turning into a true mountain man on the American frontier. As a teenager in Tennessee, he killed in self-defense, then left behind a woman he loved. With a gun and trap lines, he is learning how to survive in the Rockies, braving the punishing elements, ruthless outlaws, and forging an uneasy peace with the Indians. But as dangerous as life is, nothing is worse than a powerful man with a murderous grudge. Breckenridge has left two such men in his past - and they both send cold-blooded killers for hire after him.

Smoke Jensen has come to Corpus Christi, Texas, to take delivery of 500 horses he purchased from and old friend. That's when a Mexican revolutionary, Colonel Butamante Keno, brazenly crashes the border, slaughters 22 innocent US citizens in cold blood, and steals a thousand head of cattle - along with 200 of Smoke's horses.

Duff MacCallister fled the Scottish Highlands for a new world in Wyoming Territory. Betrothed to a good woman, Duff has the bad luck to be standing in the Chugwater Bank when a violent robbery explodes around him. With one man dead by Duff's gun, and another under arrest, a team of bandits swarms outside of town. As witnesses, Duff, a banker, and a beautiful barmaid are whisked into the town's hotel for safe-keeping as the outlaws threaten the defenseless town with a bloodbath if their fellow bandit isn't set free. Except no MacCallister has ever run from trouble.

Building a ranch takes heart and grit. Smoke and Sally Jensen are more than capable of meeting the challenges of shaping the land, raising the livestock, and establishing their brand. But Smoke wasn’t always an entrepreneur. He’s more apt to settle accounts with a fast draw than a checkbook. And when he learns his old friend Preacher has been ambushed by outlaws, he wastes no time saddling up and hitting the vengeance trail with his fellow mountain men Audie and Nighthawk.

Lawmen don't last long in the town of Doubtful, Wyoming Territory. The last one quit, another ended up in a hangman's noose, and one more was backshot by the hired guns at the Circle L Ranch. But the town of Doubtful has never seen the likes of the man who's known only as Cotton, who aims to take the badge for $125 a month, save himself a nice chunk of money over the next year, and be on his way. At least, that's his plan.

He’s the most notorious cattle rustler in all of Texas. His name — Jebediah Cotton — strikes fear into the hearts of every rancher in the territory. So it’s more than a little strange that someone would shoot Cotton’s youngest son in the back. Whoever did it is either a coward, a fool, or a crazy man. Whoever did it must die. Even if he’s a US deputy marshal named Will Tanner....

Like any gunslinger with a bloodstained past, Jon Gage needs to keep moving to stay alive. Too many people know the legend of "Texas Lightning"—and too many people want him dead. Trying to keep a low profile, he stops at a supply post in Utah Territory to stock up before hitting the trail. There, he meets a wagon train of farmers from Kansas doing the same. They seem like good, decent folks, but they're about to make a very bad decision. The route they've chosen leads straight through the Chosen Valley. Which is like walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death . . .

When Smoke Jensen sees a gang of outlaws holding up a stagecoach, his gunfighter instincts take over and he storms in with guns blazing. He kills one of the gunmen, the rest scatter like the rats they are. Another notch on the sharpshooter's weathered grip. But the dead man is the brother of the notorious outlaw Gabe Briggs, and Briggs will want revenge....

Smoke Jensen and his adopted son Matt are cooling their heels in Colorado when they are called to the Dakotas. Preacher, the legendary mountain man, is in the midst of a vicious struggle. Someone has kidnapped a proud Indian chief’s daughter and grandchild. When the kidnapping turns to murder, and Preacher vanishes after clashing with a ruthless Union colonel turned railroad king, Matt sets out to infiltrate the Colonel's gang of killers.

J. A. Johnstone - niece and former writing partner of the late Western legend William W. Johnstone - carries on her uncle’s legacy with this second book from her Loner series. After his wife is murdered, Conrad “Kid Morgan” Browning hunts down the men responsible - then visits his wife’s grave in New Mexico. There, he is shocked to discover his ex-fiancée waiting for him - along with armed backup.