William W Johnstone

"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; Smoke seeks...

William W. Johnstone's vivid, uncompromising novels stand as violent portraits of the rugged American frontiersman and the forces that forged him. In this powerful novel, Johnstone tells the story of a young Missourian forced by fate and violence into lawlessness—where he sees a chance to right the wrong that shattered his family and his soul...

Smoke Jensen is a young man raised on loss and bitterness, nurtured by a mountain man named Preacher.

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"On the lawless frontiers of the American West, there is one rule every outlaw should remember: Never cross a mountain man like Matt Jensen. Not if you want to keep breathing ... No gun. No horse. No water or food. And worse yet: No idea how he ended up in the middle of a desert with a bullet in his leg and a bump on his head. That's the sorry situation Matt Jensen wakes up to--dazed and confused--until he slowly pieces together what happened. The...

"Shady Rest, Texas has the dubious reputation for being the deadliest town in America. Getting yourself killed is as easy as blinking and twice as quick. Sure enough, Matt Jensen hasn't swallowed his whiskey before the town's marshal is gunned down before his eyes. Matt defends himself by putting two bullets in the shooter's chest, unaware that he's in line for a $5,000 bounty--as long as he stays in Shady Rest to collect it. And staying gets even...

Three days before Christmas, Matt Jensen is traveling the Denver and Pacific railway when an avalanche slams down onto the train, trapping it in desolate Trout Creek Pass. But it wasn't an act of nature that caused the accident; it was a gang of outlaws attempting to rescue their leader, who is being taken to Red Cliff to be hanged. As Smoke Jensen and Duff MacCallister frantically try to make their way to the scene, Matt struggles to save the survivors,...

Ambushed and left for dead, Confederate soldier Luke Jensen is taken in by a Georgia farmer and his beautiful daughter who nurse him back to health, but when fate takes a tragic turn, Luke, driven by vengeance, becomes the greatest bounty hunter who ever lived.

While passing through El Paso, Scratch Morton and Bo Creel are rewarded with a Mexican gold mine for saving a rich man's bacon. When they discover that the mine is a magnet for marauding banditos, Scratch and Bo fight back. Then they discover that the thieves aren't who they thought they were, that some really bad guys are on the way, and a beautiful woman might just be the most dangerous bandit of all--the kind that can steal your heart. For Scratch...

While heading to Reno for the holidays, Smoke Jensen and his family must do what it takes to survive when they are outgunned, outnumbered and out of luck after encountering a notorious gang of outlaws. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the High Sierras, but Smoke Jensen and his children, Louis and Denise, won't let a little snow stop them from heading to Reno for the holidays. There are two ways for them to get there: the long way, going...

"The Scottish Highlands, 1885. Two men, brandishing knives, attack a young woman outside a pub. Duff MacCallister steps in and saves her--killing one of the assailants. Big mistake. The attacker was the sheriff's son, and now MacCallister is marked for death. His only hope: America. Here, in the sprawling land of dreams, Duff hopes to start a new life with his American cousins. Unfortunately, the sheriff's deputies are tracking him down--with nine...

"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 U.S. deputy marshal named Will Tanner...So begins not one, but two of the deadliest manhunts in frontier history....