Black Horse Westerns - October 2009

A Colt for the Kid by John Saunders
Johnnie Callum was a half-grown boy when Donovan's riders stamped his parents' homestead flat and sent him running terrified into the night. He ran far and fast over the trackless range that was Donovan's empire and fetched up in the hands of Josh Manders, a brutal sheepherder. Manders worked him hard and in six years came near to breaking Johnnie's spirit. But not near enough. Finally, there came a day when Johnnie's resentment took charge and his big, bony hands wrapped around Manders' throat in an unshakable hold. Johnnie took Manders' horse and then worked for Sam Stevens. But when Donovan was all set up to wipe out Stevens' ranch Johnnie began to get gun-minded!


A Coffin for Santa Rosa by Steve Hayes
Dying of typhoid fever, Ingrid Bjorkman asks Gabriel Moonlight to bury her beside her late husband in Santa Rosa. Knowing he's an outlaw with a rope awaiting him in New Mexico, she makes him promise to hire a Pinkerton to escort the coffin. But Gabriel loves her too much to let anyone else handle the burial and accompanied by her rebellious teenage daughter, Raven, he takes the coffin to Ingrid's former farm where her husband is buried. But the shadow of the rope looms over Gabriel. Faced with betrayal, can he escape with his life?


Hangtown by Logan Winters
Of what use is a deserted ghost town? None at all unless like the old desert rat, Josh Banks and his young partner, Wage Carson, you have nowhere else to go and are tired of sleeping out with the rattlesnakes. In Hangtown, at least, they would have some shelter from the elements, some water for their weary mounts. In the spirit of things the two saddle bums vote Josh mayor of Hangtown and appoint Wage town marshal. They weren't alone for long. Within days the painted ladies arrived, followed by a detachment of soldiers. Things were already out of control when four rough-looking strangers arrived seeking a brief respite from the harsh desert. There was to be no respite for any of them, especially for Josh and Marshal Carson. It was not long before gunplay erupted and the silent town was prodded to violent life.


The Staked Plains by Billy Moore
When buffalo-hide hunter, Quentin McLeod, rescues Carlotta Mainord from Comanche raiders, their struggle is still far from over. They must face further hostility from the Indians, flash floods and white brigands, only to find themselves in even greater danger when they arrive in the apparent safety of New Mexico. Carlotta Mainord is attacked and left helpless in a coma and McLeod is blamed and accused of being a Comanchero. Can he convince the hanging jury of his innocence and will he escape the lynch mob in time?


Sweep of Fury by Dempsey Clay
Killer Jimmy Tucker wanted to die. 'Do It now, Gant,' he begged the stone-faced lawman. 'Don't let 'em swing me off their gallows. Just shoot me now!' He was pleading with the wrong man. The Marshals' Manual was Gant's bible. 'The law says you're to hang, Tucker,' he pronounced, 'and I'll see you do it.' 'You ain't human, Gant!' Gant nodded, Maybe Tucker was half-right but he'd still swing. The next badman to receive mercy from Marshal Gant would be the first.


Iron Eyes Makes War by Rory Black
The infamous bounty hunter, Iron Eyes, is forced to chase the wanted outlaw Joe Brewster down into an arid desert even though he has been badly wounded in a showdown with Brewster's brothers. Losing his pony, Iron Eyes is forced to follow on foot. To his surprise, he discovers an oasis in a valley. Iron Eyes trails the outlaw into the valley and soon finds that a few families are living there under threat of death by Don Miguel Sanchez and his army of vaqueros. Will Iron Eyes leave or fight until the bloody showdown?


The Battle for Skillern Tract by Matt Laidlaw
When desperate ex-Confederate officer Zac Hunter rides into Nacogdoches, he has his mind set on bank robbery. What he finds when he walks into the bank is a robbery already in progress and town marshal Dan McCrae dying from gunshot wounds. Hunter is accused of murder by councillor Morgan Jarrow, then abruptly offered the job of town marshal. He is forced to serve notice on businessmen drilling for oil on the Skillern tract, crosses swords with lawyer Tyne Coburn and the two gunslingers Yantze and Levin, and must decide if Deputy Quint's strange confession is the truth. As the various factions in Nacogdoches struggle for supremacy, Hunter is drawn into a vicious cycle of treachery and murder. The showdown would come in a blazing gunfight on the Skillern tract.