Gunfighter Books
A farmer is pulled into the world of outlaws when his estranged brother turns up dead in this new Ralph Compton Western. Brothers Clay and Cal Breckenridge, sons of a hardscrabble East Texas farmer, never did see eye to eye. Clay, the eldest, returned home after the Civil War to help his father run the family farm; Cal deserted his military post and disappeared into a new life with a new name. Everyone knew who was the good son and who was the bad. Clay had almost forgotten his wayward brother until the morning a limping horse approaches the farm with young Cal Breckenridge’s body slumped in the saddle, shot in the back. Vowing to avenge Cal’s death, Clay sets off on a perilous journey across the West to find the man responsible and bring him to justice—and take down an outlaw enterprise in the process.
In this compelling new installment of bestseller Ralph Compton's The Gunfighters series, a man driven by the destruction of his family seeks to protect a woman and her children from a band of desperados. John Stockbridge was once a peaceful man of medicine. Now, he's better known as Dr. Vengeance, a man who is as fast with a shotgun as any other gunfighter is with a six-gun. The murders of his wife and child left him with an aching hole where his soul once was. His only solace comes from wandering the West. Along the way, he encounters a woman and her two children searching for their missing fur-trapper husband/father in the Rockies. In the process, they run afoul of some foul former Confederates who have amassed money and local power by robbing those traveling west through a mountain pass. While searching for the missing trapper -- and aided by a Mexican mountain man and an independent woman who works at the local hotel-- Stockbridge must take down the vicious highwaymen one by one.
In this exciting new Ralph Compton western, a man without a memory meets an unforgettable ally: the one and only Bat Masterson. Riding into the town of Smoky River on a mangy mule, Dane looks as broken down as his old mount. His Stetson is ragged, his boots are tied together with leather thongs, and he wears a Colt Army revolver with exactly three bullets. He wouldn't know what to say if you asked him where he got the gun, or how he learned to shoot it so well. He doesn't know if Dane is his first name or his last. Something happened that cost him much of his memory, and he can't remember what that something was. For three years he's been traveling the West as a cowboy, a buffalo hunter, a farmhand. Smoky River looks to be a fine place to settle down. If only his past didn't decide to catch up to him here. . .
In this breathless new installment in bestselling author Ralph Compton's the Gunfighter series, an ex-con fights to free his hometown from the clutches of a greedy land baron. When twenty-five-year-old Lewis Taylor is released from the Texas State Prison, he receives little attention as he walks into the midday sunlight, free after serving five years for a crime he didn’t commit. His only interest is in getting back to his hometown of Gila Bend, Texas, a quiet farming community about which he has only warm, idyllic memories. During his long years in prison, he survived by thinking fondly of the home he'd known since boyhood—and of one special girl, Darla Winslow. What he finds instead is a town dramatically changed. Once a happy and carefree place to live, it is now populated by people who are angry and afraid. One man, Captain Archer Ringewald, has taken control of the town, and now he's turning the townspeople, even Darla, against Taylor. Can one ex-con single-handedly save an entire town?
In this thrilling new installment in bestseller Ralph Compton's The Gunfighter series, a man wakes with no memory of who he is—or why someone wants him dead. A gunman without a gun wakes up in Death Valley. He has no recollection of how he got there, or even his own name. He's a dead man walking until his luck turns. He stumbles upon the homestead of a widow and her young son who nurse him back to health. But in the desert good deeds come at a cost. The amnesiac is being trailed by hard men who want answers he doesn't have. First a group of gunslingers, then a troop of soldiers threaten the innocent family. Their only hope of rescue is the very man who got them in this predicament. But how can he help them when he doesn't even know who he is? At least the men who want to kill him seem to know his name. Maybe they'll put it on his gravestone.
In this fast-paced new installment in bestseller Ralph Compton's The Gunfighter series, a man wrongly convicted of a crime is out of jail and looking for vengeance. Matt Wheeler was a legend in the West. His fast gun and dedication for justice made him a sought-after lawman for hire, but all of that vanished one dark night. Matt was convicted of murder for killing the man who killed his woman. Now he's spent his time in jail and is looking to even the score against the men who set him up.
In this racing new installment in bestseller Ralph Compton's the Gunfighter series, Marshal John Beck is a man who has spent his career dispensing justice throughout the West, but now the justice is personal. Marshal John Beck was the law in the dangerous town of Mother Lode, Arizona. On his own, he'd managed to keep bandits, rustlers, and desperados at bay. It was a tough job for one man to handle, but he made it work...until the day Bram Hogan and his Brickhouse Gang got the drop on the lawman. They beat Beck to within an inch of his life and dropped him in the desert where nothing but a slow, painful death awaited him. But the gang underestimated Beck. Even at his lowest point, he found a way to survive. Now, he's coming back and anyone who stands against him is going to ride the hammer down to the grave.
A man with a hidden past doles out a dangerous dose of frontier medicine in this new western in Ralph Compton's Gunfighter series. Young doctor Gabriel Kincaid has come west to help an aging colleague who is straining to deal with the demands of a growing town, but Kincaid is looking to do more than just experience the challenges of frontier medicine. He’s determined to start a new life. But the trials he faces aren’t confined to the doctor’s surgery. After an incident in a saloon, Gabe finds himself with a new nickname: Dr. Death. It’s dangerous to have a reputation as a good man with a gun. In this world, there will always be someone who wants to test you. The West has a way of revealing a man’s true character, but it can also expose secrets that are best left hidden.
The latest thrilling installment in Ralph Compton's bestselling Gunfighter series. The law only caught up with the Venom Snakes and their bitter rivals, the Red Trail Gang, because they were so busy killing each other. Now, after twenty years in prison, Ashford Sinclair is broke and broken. Without his gang behind him, the once fearsome leader of the Snakes is reduced to eking out a solitary living as a fur trapper. One day, news comes that his son William has married the daughter of Henry Odell, erstwhile leader of the Red Trail Gang. Furious at his son’s betrayal, Sinclair vows he’ll never speak to him again. But when William is murdered in a land dispute and a gang of hired guns starts threatening his grandson next, Sinclair has no choice but to join forces with his most hated enemy—as the two outlaw grandpas ride for justice!
In this compelling new installment of bestselling author Ralph Compton's Gunfighter series, Marshal Ben Dalton travels to Fort Worth to prove an old friend innocent of murder. It's been ten years since the worst day of Ben Dalton's life. After four grinding years of war, the Confederate veteran returned to his hometown of Aberdeen, Texas, to find that Mandy, the girl he loved, had run off with his best friend, John Rawlings. Dalton recovered from the loss and spent the next decade settling down to life as the town's marshal. That quiet life is shattered with the arrival of one stunning telegram. Mandy begs her old friend to come to Fort Worth, where her lawyer husband has been arrested for murder. Without a second's hesitation, Dalton heads to the big city, where he will discover that the forces who want Rawlings convicted won't hesitate to commit a second murder to silence a visiting lawman.
A deadly marksman is on the hunt to find his missing sister in this exhilarating new Ralph Compton Western. One terrible day, fifteen-year-old Leif Gunnarson comes home to find his family home on fire and a gruesome scene inside: his parents are tied up, on the brink of death among the hellish flames, and his sister is nowhere to be found. His father can barely gasp a name: Simkins. And with that, Leif has his life’s mission—to track down Luther Simkins, notorious outlaw and gang leader, and find his sister. Along the way, Leif finds a temporary home in Wyoming Bob’s Wild West Show. He has an innate talent with firearms but needs to hone those skills until he can outshoot anyone, even Simkins. Touring the West as the star performer known as Trickshot, Leif finally gets wind of an outlaw who could lead him to his sister. It will be the most important showdown of his life—but will his sharpshooting be a match for the shocking tricks the outlaw has up his sleeve?
In the latest thrilling installment in Ralph Compton's Gunfighter series, a cult leader embarks on a murderous mission. A Native American woman has been abducted and Indian Police Officer Edwin Folsom is determined to find her. Although despised by his people for working for the U.S. government, he is descended from a long line of proud native warriors, and he vows that the kidnapper will pay dearly. Witnesses say the victim was taken by a group of white men in thrall to a holy man, but John Deacon is anything but holy. He has led The Cult of Penitence to this valley in Oklahoma looking to avenge himself on the man who gave him the scar disfiguring his face. Enraged to learn Ash Sinclair is dead, he concocts a deranged new plan: one that requires the blood of Sinclair’s young grandson, Connor. With local law enforcement arrayed against him, Folsom has only Sinclair’s family to help him stop Deacon before his insane ritual is completed...
In this fast-paced new installment in bestselling author Ralph Compton's Gunfighter series, a bandit who takes the identity of a dead lawman finds that the best place to hide is in plain sight. Jake Polk is a wanted man. He's spent years on the wrong side of the law staying one step ahead of the marshals. His most recent stage robbery ends with a posse hot on his trail. He's opened up just enough room to take a breather when he stumbles upon something astonishing. It's the body of a man resting peacefully next to a burned-out campfire. It's clear the man died in his sleep of natural causes. This is the chance Jake has been waiting for. According to a letter in the man's saddlebag, he's Marshall Owen Dent, on his way to the town of Riverbend to take over as the local lawman. Jake switches identities to avoid the posse, but what starts out as a quick means of escape may have deeper consequences when Jake considers making the change permanent.
Highly educated—and totally clueless—young Fletcher Ralston inherits a brothel and his thieving father's deadly enemy in this suspenseful new novel in Ralph Compton's Gunfighter series. Young dandy Fletcher Ralston's privileged life of education and ease in the East comes to an abrupt end when he's summoned to the dried-up Wyoming town of Promise to inherit a run-down bordello and a lifetime of debts. The old woman he's known only via correspondence as his "aunt" is in truth the madam of the brothel. After their meeting, she is found with her throat slit, and Fletcher is suspect number one. But the old lady's paramour, crusty Gunnar Tibbs, believes in his innocence and sets about mentoring the tenderfoot. Fletcher is a quick study with the revolver, and the unlikely pair set out to clear Fletcher's name and track down the real killer. What they don't know is that someone is stalking them in return: Skin Varney, the notorious, unsavory brute his father double-crossed years before. Fletcher Ralston has to learn the ways of the West, and fast. Or he'll die with his spats on.
Two strangers unite to avenge their families’ murders in this gripping new installment of bestselling author Ralph Compton’s Gunfighter series. The grisly murder of Glendon Hart and his family conveniently paves the way for a wealthy Amity Creek rancher to expand his empire of pastures and cattle. But the arrival in town of Glendon’s sister, Myra, throws a spanner in the works when she refuses to bow to Jack Denton’s increasingly intimidating demands to sell him her homestead. Sixteen years earlier, on a snow-locked Nebraska farm, a band of outlaws executed Ethan Harper’s family before his young eyes. Ethan vowed bloody revenge against the men responsible, and after years of searching the trail has brought him to Amity Creek, where he and Myra gradually discover they share a common enemy, an elusive villain with a trio of murderous minions to do his bidding. Together, they must devise a plan to lure Denton into a deadly trap—and send the devil back to hell….
In this fast-paced new installment in bestselling author Ralph Compton's Gunfighter series, the tables are turned on a posse when they become the hunted. Three men rode into Hades, New Mexico, to rob a bank. Only two rode out. Sheriff Wilson Carter killed one of the bandits in the middle of Main Street. Now he and his posse are after the two fleeing criminals. He doesn't know that the bad guys are part of a much larger gang. Nor does he know that the two men are racing to meet up with their comrades, and that the corpse on Main Street was once the brother of the psychotic gang leader. Sheriff Wilson Carter is about to find out what it's like to be hunted.
An infamous gunslinger finds his vow to reform put to the test in this exciting installment in Ralph Compton's bestselling Gunfighter series. Twenty years ago, Sherman Knowles was notorious as a fearsome shootist with an itchy trigger finger and a hot temper. Now he resides in peaceful Elam Hollow, his gunslinging days far behind him. He hasn't fired a weapon in over a decade and is happy for that to be the end of the matter. Then he receives a visit from his brother's widow, asking for his help in finding his kidnapped niece, and Sherman is left with no choice but to pick up his guns once more and head out into the wilderness to rescue her before it's too late. But you cannot escape the past, and Sherman soon finds the ghosts of yesterday waiting for him on the bleak, unforgiving prairie...
Two bandits are forced to put aside their rivalry to find a hidden cache of gold in this suspenseful installment in Ralph Compton's bestselling Gunfighter series. Outlaws. Assassins. Thieves. That is how Chris Burr and Katie Roper are known. Ordinarily they’re enemies and competitors. But when they each find themselves in possession of half a map that will lead them to a fortune in hidden gold, they’re left with no choice but to work together. Their alliance is tenuous at best, and what begins as a tentative, untrusting partnership will soon become a game of cat and mouse through a sun-scorched land ravaged by the fiery conflict of the civil war. As Chris and Katie learn that survival may depend on trusting each other, they are pursued across the desert by both a sheriff and a relentless, cold-blooded killer. With their fortunes and futures hanging in the balance, the hunters and the hunted find themselves on a collision course that will culminate in a final, deadly reckoning!
A man inadvertently assumes the identity of a Federal marshal in this exhilarating new Ralph Compton Western. Augustus Yarrow is a top lawman, noted for going undercover to ferret out criminals: everyone from bank robbers to corrupt officials. He’s the best of the best…until he winds up dead. Isaac Scott is looking for something better than his life of riding the rails when the man he's sharing a car with is shot. There's money and mysterious papers on the man, who attempts to tell Ike something with his dying breath, right before Ike himself is arrested. When he's mysteriously freed, Ike realizes it’s because the papers declare that he’s Deputy Marshal Yarrow. Ike wants nothing to do with it. But when he stumbles across illegal shipments of enough arms and ammunition to start a war, Ike knows he’s the only person who can stop the catastrophe from occurring—even if it means becoming a counterfeit lawman.
In this raucous new book in Ralph Compton’s Gunfighter series, the only thing Dan Karr can’t shoot down is his suspicion about the man who’s paying him. George Kingsley has more money than sense, and when he’s in trouble he turns to the infamous gunslinger Dan Karr for protection. Dan reluctantly accepts, and he kills every would-be assassin without hesitation or remorse. He’s superstitious, not sentimental, but Kingsley has kids, and Dan doesn’t want to see any child grow up without a father. As the killers keep coming and the bodies stack up, it becomes clear that something is very wrong. Luck favors the prepared, and Dan starts to realize just how little he knows about the family he’s risking his neck for. He’s always been good at dodging black cats and broken mirrors, but he’s spent enough time around gamblers to know that a hot streak can’t last forever. Sooner or later, every man’s luck runs out...
Two bothers face off in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse—one is out for justice...the other is out for blood, in this gripping new Western in Ralph Compton's bestselling Gunfighter series. They say blood is thicker than water and that family always comes first. But what if your family is the one that wants your blood? Sheriff Jacob Wilkinson loves his younger brother, William, but it's not easy when he's constantly trying to shoot him. Will blames his brother for the death of his young wife and has nothing left to live for—except vengeance. For his part, Jake is trying to do the right thing and track down the Collier gang, the ones actually responsible for the incident that robbed Will of his wife. But with Will sabotaging him at every turn, the odds that Jake will get justice for his brother seem nigh impossible. Jake has to find a way to get through to Will before it's too late and one of them ends up dead.
Revenge is a rocky road in this nonstop adventure in Ralph Compton’s bestselling Gunfighter series Jasper Duncan’s stagecoach is the fastest one in California; at least that’s what he tells folks looking for a ride between the Stanislaus mines and Sonora. But he needs a windfall of cash to stay in business, and he needs to stay in business to continue his hunt for the outlaw Alec Casey, who murdered Jasper’s father. He’s learned Casey has a base of operations in the Stanislaus woods and he’s determined to find it. An unexpected solution presents itself: a lucrative job transporting three passengers and “dangerous cargo.” When Jasper finds out the cargo is actually a handcuffed Slip Casey, he’s elated. Slip insists he’s not a killer like his brother, but Alec will surely come to his rescue, offering Jasper his best chance for revenge. But after an accident, a shootout and more misadventures, , can Jasper really trust Slip? And will they survive the journey?