Showing results by author "Douglas Hirt" in All Categories

It all started one blizzardy Kansas night when a half frozen Indian staggers into Somerville and dies right there on the floor of Wilson’s Barbershop…but not before telling a crazy story and showing a lump of gold that looks strangely like a golden buffalo patty.

Barrister McClain has sworn to avenge his brother's death, and that means nailing the hide of Able Gate to the barn wall. But gunfighter and secret Cavalry agent Gate is laying low up Montana way. Gate is hiding under an assumed name as artist Abernathy T. Gatelatch.

Matt Kendal believed vengeance belonged to the Lord - even after four savage bandits swept through the tiny village of San Pablo, leaving nothing but a smoking corpse-strewn ruin. Before escaping into the parched desert of the Arizona Territory, the killers flung three young women over the backs of stolen horses, and the girls could still be alive.

Chance Ketcham is a drifter, a cowboy who is always looking for greener pastures. After a card game with Benny Gellerman, a man good with a gun, but bad with cards, Ketcham decides it is time to head out again. He finds a place to bed down on a lonely New Mexico farm run by old Corely Mattlin and his widowed daughter-in-law, Margaret. Ketcham has his eye on pretty Margaret, but he'd better keep his eyes open wide for trouble....

Jeffrey Quicksall has finally put the past behind him. He’s worked hard for his outfitter’s license, enjoys guiding off-worlders on safari to hunt dinos, and generally looks forward to spending downtime either at the Safari Club bar in Elstadar City, or camping with his daughter, Kar, who lives at the local boarding school. Until the day dragons attack his mistrigger in legal hunting territory! Suddenly Magistrate Stemoplisen threatens to confiscate his outfitter’s license.

Jacob Kellogg is just looking for a meal and a place to sleep when he arrives in Calico Lace, Colorado. But what greets him as he rides down the street are townsfolk who stare at him with open hostility. Getting a drink from the saloon is as pleasurable as pulling teeth. Then when the "welcome wagon" appears in force, Kellogg soon realizes he picked the wrong town to pass through. He chose the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the golden age of the Mississippi, men and women from all walks of life climbed aboard the mighty riverboats and forged a nation's destiny. Dexter McKay, the gambler, had a heavenly way with a deck of cards, and a devilish bag of tricks when his luck ran out. Clifton Stewart, land owner, was heir to a cotton and sugar empire. But his hard head for business was betrayed by his soft heart for a pretty woman. Mystie Waters, the chambermaid, caught the eyes of every man on board.

Jack MacLaren and his partner, Charlie Longbough, set out from the Rocky Mountains, bound for New Orleans, with a season's worth of beaver pelts and high expectations of the wealth they will bring. But, unbeknownst to them, a war is brewing with England, and the British had blockaded the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River, halting all commerce in or out of the river. Jack's and Charlie's furs are nearly worthless, and their visions of wealth evaporate.

Fed up with the life of a lone gunfighter, Thomas Langely left Miles City, Montana - and a past strewn with the blood of those he had beaten to the draw. Planning on pursuing a peaceful life in the New Mexico Territory, the jaded adventurer disguises himself as a tenderfoot shopkeeper and tries to steer clear of trouble. But when he discovers a sinister plot hatched by ruthless bandits to drive a gritty widow and her beautiful adopted Indian daughter off their ranch, Langely can stand it no longer and turns to the gun.

Having impulsively thrown away his chance for forbidden love with Mystie Waters, Clifton Stewart knew he had made a mistake. Forsaking his family fortune, he signed on as a crewman with the Tempest Queen to search for the mysterious chambermaid. His search was interrupted by an assault that left him with amnesia and Captain Hamilton's beloved boat vulnerable to a gang of hard bitten river pirates.

Andoreana Dean was the only survivor of a blaze that destroyed her home while her father was away. Now Franklin Dean is searching for his daughter with a U.S. Marshal. Dean and the lawman know that Andy has been picked up by the notorious Neville Hallidae gang. But what the manhunters don’t know is how the presence of little Andy Dean is changing each one of the hard-bitten bank-robbers, and setting off a struggle among them. Now, as the law closes in on two sides, Andy is caught in between. Each outlaw knows Andy can identify them and that their final choice must be between her life...or theirs.

With skills and ability unrivaled by any in the West, Kit Carson felt truly at home among the wonders - and dangers - of the vast American frontier. But when he arrived in the rich fur-trapping country of the Flatheads, he found unexpected enemies waiting for him. A renegade British fur agent had been stirring the local tribes into a war of vengeance against the Americans, including their new captive - Kit. Suddenly it fell to Kit to stop the war before it started...or become the first casualty.

Five hundred quiet years had passed, and then for only the second time within the collected memory of man, the earth shook. Footsteps froze and eyes went wide while birds exploded from treetops and filled the sky in frenzied flight.

A dark power is at work, intent on gaining complete control of the CradleLand, the birthplace of the still-young world. All that stands in the Power's way is one troublesome line of humans: descendants of Seth. They are of the only remaining clan clinging to an all-but-dead faith. And yet it's from that faith that a prophecy threatens all plans of world dominion.

Campaigning for the presidency of the United States, Senator Stephen Douglas is the target of assassins who hope to benefit from a war between the states. His trip on the Tempest Queen offers a golden opportunity for the charming but deadly Genevieve St. James, the assassin. Meanwhile, Clifton Stewart is still searching for his lost love, Mystie Waters. He finds the ruins of the riverboat she last served on and can only conclude that she was one of many casualties of a tragic explosion.

The untamed frontier was filled with dangers of all kinds - both natural and man-made - dangers that only the bravest could survive. And so far Kit Carson had survived them all. But when he set out north along the Missouri River, he had no idea what lay ahead. He couldn't know that the Blackfeet were out to turn the river red with blood. And when he hitched a ride on a riverboat, he couldn't know that keelboat pirates were waiting just around the bend!

The West had been good to Josh McKendree. He had built a new life for himself with a loving wife and a fine young son. Then half-breed trapper Jacques Ribalt took it all away from him when he slaughtered McKendree’s family over a simple land dispute. From that day on, McKendree had only one thing left - a need to make Ribalt pay for what he did. And the West became just a place where his family’s killer was hiding. But no matter where the murderer rode, no matter what he did, the West wasn’t big enough for him to escape McKendree’s vengeance.

At age 42, Captain Ethan Brandish had finally given up his command of Fort Lowell, deep in the Apache territory of Arizona. He knew there had to be more to life than constantly battling rattlesnakes and renegades, and now he would find out what it was. But the vicious Apache leader Yellow Shirt had another fate in store for Brandish. He and a group of renegade warriors had attacked an isolated stage station and ridden off just before Brandish arrived on the scene.

The future of Noah and the remnant of faith are uncertain at best. Atlan has fallen under the evil influence of Zorin, but the Gardner of Eden has other designs. He commissions Zorin's brother, Rhone, to take back Atlan.

No man knew how to survive the dangers of the West like the legendary frontiersman Kit Carson. But even Kit was in for the ride of his life when he found himself trapped on a flimsy raft hurling down the roaring Green River - straight into a mysterious canyon surrounded by impossibly high sheer rock walls. Kit's first worry was trying to find a way out...until he came face-to-face with a primitive tribe of Indians hidden in the canyon, preparing to fight a bloodthirsty enemy tribe in a battle for their lives - a battle Kit would have to take sides in, whether he liked it or not.