Rockabye County Books
A gang of killers puts Operation Scare-Off into action against the wives of the interfering peace officers. Sheriff Jack Tragg sets up all the scientific aids and modern techniques of radio patrols, white-coated lab crews, and motorized posses with full assault armament. But when Deputy Brad Counter is faced by a member of the gang armed with a sawed-off shotgun, only one thing can save him--his traditional skill and deadly speed on the draw. At that moment either Brad of the outlaw has only a quarter of a second left to live.
“Even with a psycho there’s a point of contact in the killings,” Sheriff Jack Tragg told Deputies Fayde and Counter as they went to investigate the third apparently unconnected murder in which the same gun had been used. “Find it and at least you’ll have his motive.” Yet there seemed no point of contact between the victims – and old moonshiner, a visiting theatrical producer and the bust-out man of a crooked floating crap game. So the depuities searched and at last found the point of contact. But finding it gave them the name of another possible victim … Woman Deputy Alice Fayde herself! J.T. Edson was a former British Army dog-handler who wrote more than 130 Western novels, accounting for some 27 million sales in paperback. Edson’s works - produced on a word processor in an Edwardian semi at Melton Mowbray - contain clear, crisp action in the traditions of B-movies and Western television series. What they lack in psychological depth is made up for by at least twelve good fights per volume. Each portrays a vivid, idealized “West That Never Was”, at a pace that rarely slackens.
When the members of the Rockabye County Sheriff's Office spoke of a bad hombre, they usually meant an exceptionally large, tough, vicious and ruthless criminal with a temper as mean as a stick-teased rattlesnake's. The small, slender, meek-looking Oscar Burgenhof was so insignificant in appearance that he might be passed unnoticed on a deserted street. Yet his weird and erotic tastes in entertainment had driven him to a life of crime. By the time Burgenhof was brought to justice, he had killed five people and involved Women Deputy Alice Fayde in the tightest, most bizarre and perilous situation of her life. No matter how he might look, Oscar Burgenhof was a bad hombre.
On vacation in Mexico, Woman Deputy Alice Fayde and her partner Deputy Sheriff Bradford Counter hoped for some R Giving a lift to an English girl, they found themselves involved with hired killers and entangled in the world of international espionage. And so they began a desperate run for the border. The deputies would need all their gun-skill, courage and intelligence if they hoped to reach Rockabye County alive.
Jack Tragg, sheriff of Rockabye County, Texas, was a powerful, sun-bronzed six foot one. Although he owned traditional cow-hand style outfits, he usually wore a business suit or khaki uniform. His gunbelt was a modern combat-shooter's rig, with a single Smith & Wesson .41 Magnum. Jack had a stable of fine horses at his disposal, but most of the time he traveled by car, aeroplane or helicopter. Like his Old West predecessors, Jack's duty was to keep the peace and maintain law and order in his bailiwick. Tough--fast with a gun--Jack was the jet-aged lawman!
Two terrorists had seized hostages, demanding an aircraft to take them to Cuba...Then 'Crazy Doc' Christopher had escaped from the penitentiary hell-bent on vengeance. But when Walter Haddon--one of the FBI's ten most wanted men--strolled into Gusher City, all four men found out what other criminals had discovered to their cost. Breaking the law in Rockabye County was fraught with peril. For they were up against men like Sheriff Jack Tragg, Deputy Sheriff Brad Counter and Thomas Cord and the rest of the lawmen of Rockabye County.
Brad Counter, great grandson of Mark Counter from Ole Devil Hardon's outfit, carries on the family legacy as a deputy sheriff in the Lone Star State. He and his partner, Deputy Alice Fayde, are part of a team investigating the near-fatal shooting of a fellow officer.