Cotton Pickens Books

Cotton Pickens is feeling about as low as a man can get. Held up, robbed and fired from his job as sheriff, things get even worse when someone murders Cotton's horse Critter. And it's all happening just as a flashy, fleshy stage company comes to town. Some folks demand the show be shut down for immorality. Some folks - Cotton included - sure enjoy the proceedings. But when a man gets stabbed to death, a bank safe gets blown up, and another county's sheriff starts imposing his will, Cotton realizes that a dastardly plot is taking over Doubtful. Badge or no badge, Cotton is going to war. To catch a killer. To stand up to some self-righteous fatheads. And for the right to see a little bare-naked leg - or die trying.

The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st Century Cotton Pickens is the most unlikely sheriff on the frontier. And when the town of Doubtful, Wyoming, explodes, Cotton will lay down the law. . .if the law doesn't lay him down first. No Whiskey? No Women? No Peace. . . It was a law Cotton Pickens never asked for and never wanted to enforce. But due to the vigilance of the Women's Temperance Society, and the timidity of their businessmen husbands, the town of Doubtful, Wyoming, is going dry. As of January 1st. No exceptions. No turning back. Doubtful's hell-raisers will not take this lying down, and Sheriff Pickens is fighting bootleggers and vigilantes when the next boot drops. The righteous women push through an even worse law bound to spark an outright insurrection. The world's oldest profession and Doubtful's favorite pastime--dallying with ladies of the evening--is the next vice to be outlawed. With all hell breaking loose, and the National Guard on the way, Sheriff Pickens has enemies everywhere he turns. And for a lawman under siege, survival means fast thinking, straight shooting--and breaking a law or two himself. . .

William W. Johnstone: The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st Century Welcome to the peaceful little town of Doubtful, Wyoming, which has more than its fair share of kill-crazy gunslicks, back-shooters, and flat-out dirty desperadoes. It also has a sheriff named Cotton Pickens, who tries his best to keep law and order without getting his head blown off before breakfast. Doubtful's Got A New Deputy. . .For The Moment Cotton Pickens got where he is by virtue of a quick draw and slow wit. He knows the difference between lawbreakers you have to lock up. . .and the kind you might as well just let go. Deputy Rusty Irons, though, ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. Someone kidnapped Rusty's mail order brides. They were probably doing Irons a favor, but a deputy in love is blind. As for the carny barkers, medicine show con artists and revival-meeting fly-by-nighters who pass through Doubtful. . .Cotton just tries to keep the traveling hucksters moving. But in one terrible moment it all goes to hell. That's when Doubtful explodes in a frenzy of killing and bloodshed. That's when a lawman like Cotton earns his pay by looking evil straight in the eye. Of course, there's also the matter of keeping his new deputy alive and in one piece.