Black Horse Westerns - February 2010

The Tombstone Vendetta by Ralph Hayes

When Billy Clanton and his friends are murdered in Tombstone by the town marshal and his deputies, the growing tension between the local authorities and the ranchers spirals out of control. The once sleepy frontier town is mired in hatred, with bad blood and scores to settle on both sides. Families are torn asunder as the violence rages on. Will there ever be peace in Tombstone? Or will peace only come when one side reigns victorious?


The Judas Metal by Gillian F. Taylor

There are things that friends should never have to say to one another. 'Have you betrayed me?' is one of those things. Pat Williams and Robson Hyde were a successful partnership. Together they had gained control of the now-flourishing silver mine down in south-west Texas, but when bandits began to ambush the loads of silver bullion, things started to change. The bandits' knowledge of the route was so precise they had to have inside information, and as Hyde struggled to discover who was behind the attacks, a resentful enemy started to sow the seeds of doubt in Williams' mind. Did Hyde want all the silver for himself? Unchecked, suspicion turns to fear and the pair's friendship comes to an abrupt end with a violent death at the silver mine.


Wild Meddow by Caleb Rand

With a small herd of cattle and a big pack of trouble, the man known as Burt Lane rode into Northern Wyoming. Outside the town of Clayburn, the cattle ranch known as Wild Meddow had lain untended and overgrown for many years. With no apparent lawful owner, its water and fertile soil were of much interest to the covetous Cole Dodgson and Vaughn Maber. When they eventually decide to overrun the ranch, Burt Lane must declare his real identity. Then, when his friend, Hester Brax, is taken hostage, he decides that the time for long-awaited retribution has arrived.


Guns of Ponderosa by Chuck Tyrell

When Jake Cahill and his gang take over the town of Ponderosa, sawmill magnate Fletcher Comstock sends for his friend and former town marshal Matt Stryker. When Stryker arrives though, Cahill is waiting. He gelds Stryker's fine Arabian stallion and beats Stryker terribly, disfiguring him for life. But Stryker will not give up. Bearing the scars of his beating, he returns to Ponderosa to pin on the marshal's badge. Matt Stryker must tame a rowdy town and get rid of the ruthless Cahill gang as the guns of Ponderosa blaze and blood runs red in the Arizona high country.


The Legend of Tornado Tess by Terrell L. Bowers

Amy Cole wants to do more than write a story: she wants to live one. Her chance comes when one of her fans, who is trying to clear a doctor of murder, writes to her for help. Investigating the murder means entering the fortress called Little Babylon, a bandit stronghold in the middle of the New Mexico wasteland. Whitney Scott is on the trail of a band of killers, a trail which leads to Little Babylon. When he meets Amy, he is caught up in her story-both figuratively and literally. They agree to work together but an unknown assassin is out to kill Whitney. In the end, Amy realises that solving the murder mystery is not nearly as important as staying alive.


Confederate Paydirt by Robert Anderson

Gentleman Jim Murphy was content to play high stakes poker until he heard about the gold; Billy wanted to avoid his former confederate, tough ex-Union Sergeant Joshua O'Donnell; Seraphim Angel McCall wanted all she could get; and nobody trusted anybody. Not the best of starts when the four banded together to form an unlikely partnership to search for the long lost Confederate bullion, especially since they were up against the redoubtable Zachariah Holmes and his murderous band of comancheros. The trail began in Madison and led into the trackless wastes of the hostile, sun blasted desert, where the intrigue redoubled with treacherous plots and counter plots flying as fast as the bullets. The gold may have been there, but would anybody live to retrieve it?