COVER GALLERY: BUSHWHACKERS

BUSHWHACKERS

By B.J. Lanagan

Cover art by Bill Dodge
(except book 7)

This nine book series was published by Jove. First book appeared in July 1997 and the last January 2000.
B.J. Lanagan was a pseudonym used by Robert Vaughan.

When the Civil War was over, the regular soldiers of the blue and gray returned to the peaceful lives they had known before. Not so for Win and Joe Coulter, members of Quantrill’s Raiders, the most brutal gang of Yankee hatin’ cutthroats ever assembled. They returned not as heroes, but as wanted men. Now they’re committed to a lifetime on the edge – experts with guns, with women, and with keeping just ahead of the hangman’s rope…

Like others in Missouri, Win and Joe Coulter didn’t take sides during the war. Until a band of marauding Yankees brutalized and murdered their parents. They had nothing left but each other and a desperate thirst for vengeance. Then they met William Quantrill and joined his bloodthirsty Raiders. Killing men at the drop of a hat, the Coulter brothers became two of the most wanted men in the West. And learned just how sweet – and deadly – revenge could be…

After the fall of the Confederacy, every one of Quantrill’s Raiders was a wanted man. But in San Saba, Texas, Yankee hatin’ and baitin’ were still favourite pastimes. Lured there by a promise of easy money, Win and Joe Coulter joined forces with a fiery redhead in a plan to rob her lover – the richest Yankee in the county. Win was happy to oblige the woman, in more ways than one. Because for men with a score to settle, the war wasn’t over – it had only just begun…

Win and Joe don’t like getting shot at, especially by varmints who don’t have skill enough to kill them. Then, after fending off an unsolicited attack, they find themselves a genuine lady in distress – bound, gagged, the works. Her name’s Pamela Wellington, and her daddy owns Camelot, a bright, shining sixty-thousand-acre kingdom in the middle of Texas. But like that golden ranch of yore, there’s foul-smelling evil afoot. And it’s not Joe Coulter’s boots…

Someone’s about to mess with the Bushwhackers. And that means someone’s about to be messed back.

All Win Coulter wanted was a nice hand of poker. But his hand was hotter than the Devil’s coffee mug, and he ended up winning the deed to a Belle Springs saloon named the Desert Flower. Now Win and his brother Joe, have a place to drink for free.

But Belle Springs is run by a sheriff as crooked as an old man’s spine. He runs his own watering hole, and he doesn’t cotton to competition. So it looks like the Bushwhackers will have to ante up a special “sheriff’s tax” – or get out of town.

Yeah, right.

Normally the Coulter brothers didn’t pay any mind to some varmint’s love life. But Win and Joe were down to their last dollars, so they agreed to find the guy’s long-lost lover, a little filly named Cat Clay. It seemed like their easiest job yet. Except that Cat was living smack-dab in the middle of a Mexican ranch war with bullets flying thicker than blazes.

Now they have to find a ruthless killer, settle a ranch dispute and rescue a very lovely lady in distress without ending up six feet under. All in a day’s work for these two men from Missouri…

Epitaph, Arizona. Nice place. Beer’s cold, at least. But Win and Joe barely get two drops to their lips before the shootin’ starts. When the smoke clears, a marshal and two lowlifes are dead, and the Coulter brothers are hip deep in a war.

On one side’s the ranchers. Other side’s the miners. Who’s good and who’s bad ain’t the issue. Who’s gonna survive is. And with the Coulters in town, every two-bit gunslinger’s chances just dropped to zero.

These ain’t the kind of fireworks Win and Joe were expectin’. The coldhearted massacre of a Bushwhacker’s family turns their Fourth of July festivities into a funeral. All signs point to the work of Kansas Charley Beckett, a Jayhawker who rode against the Bushwhackers during the war – and who lusts to gut every rebel soldier who ever forked a horse.

Now, the only red, white, and blue Win and Joe want to see are the red of his blood, the white of his eyes, and the blue of his body as it hangs from the gallows…

All Win and Joe want out of the tiny town of Sulphur Springs is a cold beer, a hot bath, and some warm company for the night. But Win’s company offers more than he bargained for when she confides that her brother has been murdered by an outlaw rustler bent on ruining every rancher for miles around. It’s more than the Marshal can handle, but word is that it’s something the Coulter brothers can…

The Coulter brothers have gone their separate ways for the time being. While Joe’s strikin’ gold, Win is being tracked by someone with a well-placed burr under his saddle…

But what really rankles Win is his less-than-hospitable welcome in Horseshoe, Nevada. After being left for dead in the street, all Win wants is a good meal, a cold beer, and the sultry coos of a soiled dove. All that stands in his way is a no-good sheriff, whose mouth is faster than his draw. Killing the man gets Win a date with the gallows. But you can’t count one Coulter out while his brother still has the gumption – and the guns – to do something about it…

COVER GALLERY: SHILOH

SHILOH by Dalton Walker

Cover art by Guy Deel

A series of eight books published by Charter/Diamond Books from October 1990 until July 1992

The West made him a man. The War made him Shiloh . . . named for the bloody battle that twisted his soul. And when the fighting ended, he became a bounty hunter. Because for him, death is a way of life.

Lawrence Callahan was a heatless killer who deserved to die. And Shiloh reckons he deserves the $1,000 reward for bringing him in. There’s just one or two things standing in his way. Like a little dustball called Splendid, Nevada. Like a man named Merriweather who’s got the town – and the sheriff – under his thumb. Like Merriweather’s two sadistic sons . . . 

Shiloh’s not in town one day before he’s on the wrong side of trouble. But the fine citizens of Splendid are about to discover that Shiloh’s only got one side – his fighting side!

First they killed a man in cold blood. And then they shot Shiloh’s horse. The vicious gang of outlaws, led by a crazed butcher named Follard, didn’t realize they were dealing with the deadliest manhunter alive. But they’d find out – the hard way . . . 

Shiloh’s coming after them. There’s no bounty at stake – this time it’s personal. But the body count is rising, the desert sand is red with blood, and Follard ain’t running scared – he’s gunning for Shiloh.

Who is the hunter . . . and who is the prey?

Every man has his price, and tycoon J.W. Bannerman has Shiloh’s figured out just right. The old coot is desperate to win back the only thing he’s ever lost: his daughter. And the mighty chunk of change he’s throwing Shiloh’s way has the bounty hunter thinking he’s the right man for the job.

But before Shiloh can get his nose to the trail, he’s sniffed out by a fearsome rival. A man of his own breed – a bounty hunter. Now the hunter is the hunted . . . and only one can survive.

Pinkerton lawman Christian Brady was a good man. Now he’s a dead man – and Shiloh hits the trail vowing revenge against the low-down vermin who slaughtered his old war pal. Then some fool of a badge tosses Shiloh in jail . . . for Brady’s murder.

Breaking out’s the easy part. It’s the crazy lynch mob and cold-blooded posse hot on his heels that’s got Shiloh worried. And when a bounty hunter like Shiloh becomes the hunted . . . there’s no defense quite like bullets and blood.

Frank Haven has the evil heart of a dictator, the twisted mind of a madman, and fifty kill-crazy desperados to do his fighting. He holds a small border town in a reign of terror, governing a labor camp where no one finds mercy. Above and below the Rio Grande, every lawman wants him stopped. But only one man has the guts.

Shiloh infiltrates the camp’s inner circle posing as one of Haven’s gun-toting gang. Now the only way out of hell is straight through it – as Shiloh tries to battle Haven with blood and bullets.

First he killed a man in cold blood. Then the crooked gambler named Ratlin set off across the mining country of northern California, leaving blood and bodies everywhere he hung his hat . . . 

What Ratlin doesn’t know is that the deadliest manhunter alive is hot on his trail. And when Ratlin tries to backshoot Shiloh, it’s his first big mistake. Now gunning down Ratlin isn’t enough . . . the bounty hunter won’t stop until he sees this killer swing from the gallows. 

In the midst of a harsh Nevada blizzard, Shiloh takes refuge in an abandoned barn – and finds himself held captive by three low-down ranch hands from the Lazy B. In a blaze of bullets, Shiloh busts out of their trap. But wealthy rancher Horatio Ballock will see to it that Shiloh stays in trouble – and plenty of it.

At a high-stakes card game, Shiloh calls Ballock’s son a cheat. Now he’s got the rest of the Lazy B after his hide, along with a slick gun named Falcon. Suddenly the bounty hunter is on the wrong side of the chase – and he’s running for his life.

Cephas Beck was a mean old man – a mean, rich old man. When Shiloh trades blows with Beck’s lowlife son Elias, he’s quick to discover that Cephas Beck can pay any price for revenge on anyone who messes with his boy.

But faster than Shiloh can count his new enemies, fate steps in – and Elias meets a cruel death under the hooves of a ferocious stallion. Now Cephas’s greedy dreams of racing the magnificent beast come crashing down in a madman’s rage for vengeance – and Shiloh is hired to track a mount fit for the Devil himself!

COVER GALLERY: WILD BILL

WILD BILL

By Judd Cole

A series of eight books published by Leisure Books from February 1999 to May 2001. Judd Cole is a pseudonym used by John Edward Ames. The books weren't numbered, but are shown in the correct order. 

Marshal, gunfighter, stage driver, and scout, Wild Bill Hickok had a legend as big and untamed as the West itself. No man was as good with a gun as Wild Bill, and few men used one as often. From Abilene to Deadwood, his name was known by all – and feared by many. That’s why he was hired by Allan Pinkerton’s new detective agency to protect an eccentric inventor on a train ride through the worst badlands of the West. With hired thugs out to kill him and angry Sioux out for his scalp, Bill knew he had his work cut out for him. But even if he survived that, he still had a worse danger to face – a jealous Calamity Jane.

Wild Bill Hickok was a legend in his own lifetime. Wherever he went his reputation with a gun proceeded him – along with an open bounty for $10,000 for his arrest. But Wild Bill was working for the law when he went to Kincaid County, Wyoming. Hundreds of prime longhorn cattle had been poisoned, and Bill was sent by the Pinkerton Agency to get to the bottom of it. He didn’t expect to land smack dab in the middle of an all-out range war, but that’s exactly what happened. With the powerful Cattleman’s Association on one side and land-grant settlers on the other, Wild Bill knew that before this war was over, he’d be testing his gun skills to the limit if he hoped to get out alive.

Even among the toughest hardcases in the West, Abilene, Kansas, was known as pure hell on earth, a wide-open wild town that was reined in only briefly – when Wild Bill Hickok was its sheriff. Ever since he rode out of Abilene, Wild Bill had never wanted to go back. But now he had to. A lot of people were dying there. The Kansas Pacific Railroad was laying track where somebody obviously didn’t want it, and bullets were flying thick and furious. The Pinkerton Agency needed their best operative to get to the bottom of it and that meant only one man – Wild Bill. But as hard as it was for Wild Bill to go back, he knew there was a bigger challenge ahead of him – staying alive once he got there.

When the Danford Gang terrorized Arizona, no one – not the U.S. Marshals or the Army – could bring them in. It took Wild Bill Hickok to do that. Only Wild Bill was able to put them in the Yuma Territorial Prison, where they belonged. But the prison couldn’t hold them. The venomous gang escaped and took the Governor’s wife and her sister as hostages. So, it was up to Wild Bill to track them down and do the impossible – capture the Danford Gang a second time. Only this time, the gang’s ruthless leader, Fargo Danford, had a burning need for revenge against the one man who had put him and the gang in prison in the first place, a need as hot as the scorching Sonora sun . . . and as deadly as the desert trap he had set for Bill. 

All Wild Bill Hickok wanted as he set out for Santa Fe was a place to lie low for a while, to get away from the fame and notoriety that followed him wherever he went. But fame wasn’t the only thing that stuck to Wild Bill like glue. He’d made a lot of enemies over the years. And one of them, Frank Tutt, has waited a good long time to taste sweet revenge. He knew he was ready for him . . . ready and eager to make him pay. But he was in no hurry. After all these years he could wait a bit longer, long enough to play a little game with his legendary target. Oh, he would kill Wild Bill, all right – but first he wanted Bill to know what it was like to live in Hell.

Deadwood, South Dakota, held a special place in the pantheon of frontier hellholes. Even to a man like Wild Bill Hickok, that was the toughest town in the West, a town where only the strongest and most daring could survive. But that’s exactly where Wild Bill had to go, whether he liked it or not. He was sent there by the Pinkerton Agency to investigate reports of stealing at a particularly dangerous mine, dangerous even by Deadwood standards. The mine guarded by Regulators, vicious hardcases who made sure no one interfered with their plans. Three Pinkerton men had already been killed when they went up against the Regulators – and Bill was determined not to be the fourth.

The U.S. Army needed help. Someone seemed intent on driving the Sioux off their reservation. Someone was slaughtering their animals and poisoning their water. Were these the acts of renegades, like some thought, or something far worse? Whoever was responsible, the army knew it wouldn’t be long before the Sioux fought back and left the reservation for the war path. The army also knew there was only one man who could restore peace before all hell broke loose – Wild Bill Hickok. Bill had to ride point on a dangerous trail drive to bring cattle to the reservation before the simmering Sioux were pushed too far. But this was no ordinary cattle drive – it was a trip through pure hell, with enemies on every side.

Leland Langford, owner of the Overland Stage and Freighting Company, had a dangerous but essential job and he knew there was only one man for it, the legendary Wild Bill Hickok. Leland knew that only Wild Bill could ensure that an important gold shipment travel safely by stage from the Black Hills to the U.S. Mint in Denver. With Wild Bill as driver, the stage had to make it through. But there was an even more important part of Bill’s mission. Bill had to break up one of the cleverest and most vicious rings of thieves ever to terrorize the West, and send one message loud and clear: Steal gold from the U.S. Treasury and you’ll face the harshest law in the West . . . gun law.

Two artists fronted the books, Ken Laager’s work appeared on book one, and probably book seven – I’ve not been able to confirm the later. All the other books used paintings by Shannon Stirnweis – book eight isn’t confirmed though.

COVER GALLERY: McMASTERS

McMASTERS

by Lee Morgan

Armed with a custom-built .70 caliber rifle, he is the law. To his friends, he is many things – a fighter, a lover, a legend. To his enemies, he is only one thing – the most dangerous man they have ever known…

Lee Morgan is a pseudonym behind which a variety of well-known western authors wrote this adult series. The first book being written by Giles Tippette, the second by James Reasoner, the third by Robert Vaughan, the fourth and sixth by David Jacobs. The fifth book by either Robert Vaughan or Charlie McDade. The first book appeared in June 1995 and the last in April 1996.

Once upon a time, Boyd McMasters had everything a man could want: a pretty young wife, a profitable working ranch, and a sheriff’s badge in West Texas. But that man died when a band of ruthless outlaws slaughtered his wife. The new McMasters is an angry man, and no amount of whiskey or women can change that fact. He stumbles into Oklahoma City, a filthy, ragged shadow of his old self. In desperation, Boyd’s older brother enlists him in the Cattleman’s Protective Association – giving him authority over local lawmen and, if necessary, a license to kill. And as Captain Boyd McMasters sets out to deal the West his own brand of justice, a legend is born…

When the Cattleman Protective Association’s Captain Boyd McMasters finds out that his next job is a case of cattle rustling in the little town of Silver Creek, Texas, he figures he’s in for a vacation. He couldn’t have been more wrong. The town’s biggest ranch, the JF Connected, is missing four head, wouldn’t be a big deal if they weren’t four prize bulls, worth about twenty thousand dollars. That’s a mighty big chunk of change – enough to kill for, it seems, because someone keeps drawing a bead on McMasters every time he goes into town. But when McMasters figures out who’s behind it all, he’s gonna send them on a vacation…a permanent one.

The Cattleman’s Protective Association’s Captain Boyd McMasters is through taking prisoners. He already put Curly and Frank Dobbs behind bars in New Mexico for murder and rape. But they broke out of jail and killed a deputy. Then they robbed an Arizona bank of over fifty thousand dollars and kidnapped a young lady and her five-year-old daughter. Luckily, the bank is one of the Association’s clients, and that gives McMasters the authority to hunt them down. And when “Bullet Boyd” catches up with the Dobbs boys, he’s gonna put them somewhere they’ll never escape from – their graves…

Smoke Tree, Arizona, is a dusty little town where people live in fear. A cutthroat gang of cattle rustlers called the Rock House Boys runs roughshod over the local ranchers. They steal at will, and anyone who fights back ends up full of lead. The U.S. marshal and the town sheriff are either too yellow or too busy fighting each other to do anything about it. That’s why ranchers have the Cattleman’s Protective Association to help them. And that’s why the Association hires men like Captain Boyd McMasters to solve its problems. McMasters has decided that the Rock House Boys are through, and that cattle rustling is finished in Smoke Tree. He’s made his decision – now he’s gonna enforce it. And anyone who disagrees can take it up with his rifle, Big .70…

The Nueces Strip, down near the Rio Grande, is home to a bunch of cutthroats who put fear into the Rangers, the marshals, and even their own mamas. It’s also home to a hardworking rancher named Ben Allison who losing thousands of beeves to moonlight rustlers. Sent in by the Cattleman’s Protective Association, Captain Boyd McMasters gets a tip from two beautiful señoritas. Word is it ain’t the usual Strip debris that’s robbing Allison…it’s a powerful honcho across the border. This midnight cowboy has big pesos and mean hombres in his employ, but McMasters has the mighty .70 working for him…

Amid the beauty of Montana’s Blue Pine Hills is a horrifying display of human nature’s ugly side. A twisted bunch called the Hell Killers has turned the locals yellower than a mountain man’s teeth, and for good reason. Not entertained by rustling cattle, the gang kills and mutilates them before moving on to the ranchers, their families, and anyone else they come across. The Cattleman’s Protective Association is fighting back – they’ve put cash bounties on the Hell Killers’ heads, and have sent McMasters to collect. And he and his Big .70 are gonna see to it that they visit Hell real soon…

Cover art by Morgan Kane, who signed his name as M. Kane. This series artwork borrows heavily from the style fronting romance books at the same time these were published. The man not wearing a shirt was a requirement. Whether these covers shout western is for you to decide. Interesting to note that the books carry a banner stating McMasters comes from the creators of Longarm and that Morgan Kane painted the first covers for that series too.

COVER GALLERY: THE HORSEMEN

THE HORSEMEN

By Gary McCarthy

They were bound not only by blood, but by their love of horses…and together, they rode the West in search of freedom…

This series ran from June 1992 to August 1994 and were published by The Berkley Publishing Group as part of their Diamond line.

The Ballou’s were the finest horsemen in the South, a Tennessee family famous for the training and breeding of glorious thoroughbreds. When the Civil War devasted their home and their lives, they headed West – into the heart of Indian Territory. As horsemen, they triumphed. As a family, they endured. But as pioneers in a new land, they faced unimaginable hardship, danger, and ruthless enemies…

Haunted by the blood and bitterness of the Civil War, Houston Ballou left Tennessee on the proud stallion High Fire, followed by his brother, his sister, and the last four mares from the Ballou farm – one of them heavy with foal. But there were deserters wandering the roads who would kill for valuable horseflesh – and others who would kill a man just for being Southern…

In the wake of tragedy, the surviving members of the Ballou family sought a new beginning on the Texas frontier. There, the Comanches shared their love and respect for horses – training the wild mustangs that ran free across the plains. And there, a tribe of savage hunters called the Kiowa offered a challenge to any people fearless enough – and foolish enough – to cross their path…

Ruff Ballou and his sister Dixie journeyed west with trouble at their heels. But luck is on their side in Rum River, New Mexico, where they race one of their champion thoroughbreds to victory. Now a rich man’s greed pits their good fortune against Ruff’s life – and they must take up a money-making challenge to capture Blue Bullet, the legendary stallion that no man has yet tamed. But their worst enemy is time – as they race to save the lone fury from savage killers who’ll bring in their bounty – dead or alive…

They had been driven from the South, trying to save the horses it had taken their father a lifetime to breed. Now Ruff Ballou and his sister Dixie are on their way to Denver to make a new life…but when they are confronted by a lawman in the town of Rio Paso, the two find themselves embroiled in a search for a murderous outlaw. The Rio Grande Valley may be their home for now…as they struggle to build a new dynasty with their proud thoroughbred – and try desperately to hold on to all they have left…

COVER GALLERY: FARADAY

FARADAY

By William Grant

A series of books following undercover detectives working for the Faraday Security Service as they attempt to keep the railroads safe. Six were published before Lynx Books went out of business. Two more announced books never saw the light of day. The series ran from July 1988 to May 1989.

William Grant is a pseudonym shared by five authors. James Reasoner wrote the first one, Paul Block the second, Robert Vaughan wrote books three, five and six and Bill Crider wrote the fourth. The two none-published books were number seven, Avalanche Run, by Crider and number eight, The Owlhoot Express, written by Chet Cunningham.

Matthew Faraday is as much a mystery as those he solves. But, as head of the Faraday Security Service, he’d already earned a reputation: tough, smart, fiercely loyal to his friends, dangerous to his enemies, and as much at home on the back of a horse as in a Kansas City boardroom.

And it is from such a place that his latest case comes. The Kansas Pacific Railroad is in trouble. Indian raids, sabotage, and murder have halted the laying of track that would tie the west – and the list of suspects rangers from Kansas City to the Nebraska railhead.

The mystery only deepens when Faraday dispatches his best undercover agent Daniel Britten to Nebraska – into a hornet’s nest. Now Faraday’s shuffling the clues in Kansas City – caught in a conflict between an old friend and an old sweetheart – getting closer to the secret that could cost his life, while Dan dodges bullets, arrows, and the attentions of two beautiful women – either of whom may hold the secret that will stop the railroad, and halt the destiny of The Iron Horse.

Indian raids. Armed bandits. Violent storms. These were nothing…at least not compared to a railroad man’s worst nightmare: Two trains. One track. A head-on collision. The ungodly sound of ripping metal. The terrified screams of the dying. And on the Colorado plains, it finally happened. A terrible accident. 

When two more trains meet the same grim fate, “accident” is not a satisfactory answer – and Matthew Faraday, the tough, smart honcho of Faraday Security Service, is called in to uncover the saboteurs. With the help of Nora Sutherland and Stuart Kennedy, two of his top operatives, and Jim Hart, a clever young newsman, he’s closing in on the murderous truth.

But time is running out – at the speed of a locomotive – as the Faraday agents take to the rails aboard a train headed for a date with disaster – while a cold, vicious mastermind plots their Collision Course.

The train-top murder of one of his female operatives has thrust Matthew Faraday, the wily chief of Faraday Security Service, into the dark and twisting tunnel of another railroad mystery, and a coded message in the dead woman’s pocket is the only clue.

But it’s enough to send Faraday to the War Department looking for answers, and two of his best undercover agents – Leah Saunders and Mike Rindell – into the heart of the Rebel South to save a Yankee gold shipment from the notorious Tyreen’s Raiders.

Now it’s a race for a fortune, by train, on foot, on horseback, and in a silk balloon…a race against time, treachery, and murder, where every turn of the track hides unseen friends, unsuspecting enemies, and death in several guises.

Until personal tragedy hit him, and he spent a year hitting the bottle, Jim Stone was once of Faraday Security’s top operatives – quick with his fists, or his gun.

Now Matt Faraday’s giving him a chance to make his way back. There’s trouble on the Denver & Rio Bravo line – the railroad carrying the Allen Players on a theatre tour to far Colorado. One of the troupe has been found dead on a dark stage. Murdered. And Stone’s been sent – undercover – to replace him and unravel the mystery. But the bodies are piling up faster than the clues, and everyone looks like a perfect suspect.

The stage directions in this case call for a train ambush, a deadly masquerade, screaming bullets, flashing swords, and a poisonous climax before the final curtain falls!

Many people believed that Ironsprings should be called Iron Fist, because that’s how self-serving Marshal Josh Wade and his deputized brothers ran things – letting gambling, boozing, brawling, and prostitution run rampant as long as Wade collected a “business tax” from the profiteers.

But Ironsprings was a railroad town as well, and there were signs that the rash of robberies plaguing the Union Pacific originated somewhere in Josh Wade’s domain.

That’s when Jared Macalester, the trackwalker, came to town. But Macalester was more than he appeared to be; he was Matt Faraday’s good friend and crackerjack agent gone undercover to uncover the truth, stop the crimes, and save the town in the process – but not until first facing ambush, train wrecks, a small civil war, pistolero Tim Quick, whose temper and gun matched his name, and the hottest blood-feud since the Earps and the Clantons reddened the dust of the O.K. Corral!

As our wounded nation heals itself in the aftermath of the Civil War, it is once more plunged into sorrow. In one treasonous moment President Abraham Lincoln is dead, and – though his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is quickly caught – the treachery is far from over.

A plot is being hatched to kidnap Lincoln’s body from the funeral train that will carry the fallen leader through the countryside of mourners, from Washington to its final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.

Matthew Faraday has gotten wind of the plot – although its perpetrators are still a mystery. With the blessings of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and the aid of his newest and boldest agent, Cole Yeager, Faraday is sworn to protect the great man’s body from desecration – while ambush, runaway locomotives, and death-dealing renegades wait up ahead of the Train of Glory.

Cover Gallery: The Rio Kid

The Rio Kid westerns had their origins in the pulps and some then appeared as paperbacks in the later 1960's and continued into the mid 1970's. Curtis Books was one of the American publishers of this series. Six of these books were later published in the U.K. by Tandem, three of which had title changes as you'll see below. The U.K. publications also saw the uncommon use of photographs for the cover images. Personally I'd have preferred to have seen paintings on the covers but I guess it helped make them stand-out from the competition at the time. What do you think?

Original title: Riding for Custer

All of Kansas was threatened by the invading swarms of warring Indians. No one was safe from the Dog Soldiers, a band of cruel warriors who tortured their victims to a slow death.

Custer’s Seventh Cavalry was called in to protect the settlers. Riding as Chief of Scouts was the Rio Kid. He was searching for secret Indian war camps, but what he found was an even greater horror.

Another more treacherous force was driving the Indians to massacre. The Rio Kid had to shoot his way to the truth, before the reign of blood took them all in its wake.

Guns barked in the streets of Wichita; gang-law reigned in the saloons and gambling dens of the Kansas cow town. Jake Heath, leading vice lord of the West, had the town sown up. His men ran the gambling trade, fixed the land business, picked cattle and horses off the Texas Trail. There were fortunes to be made in Wichita if you played it Jake Heath’s way – and a brutal, bloody death for those who wouldn’t.

The Marshal of Wichita would have all the cards stacked against him, and a one in a million chance of winning through. Until they pinned the marshal’s star on the Rio Kid.

Across the wide Kansas range rode the dreaded renegade Quantrell and his blood-lusting guerrilla army, spreading terror and death. There was one man who stood up to stem the savage tide: his name was Captain Bob Pryor, also known as the Rio Kid.

The odds were long against the Rio Kid, and when the huge and sinister figure of Jarvis Thompson loomed up, it looked as though the Rio Kid had bought a one-way ticket to Boot Hill.

Original title: Pards of Buffalo Bill

Three slaughtered bodies lay rotting on the plains. Victims of the Sioux, it seemed. But there were boot tracks nearby – with a cross in the heel to keep the devil away. White man’s tracks…

With the railroad crawling west and the Sioux on the rampage, there was a chance to make millions on land. Someone was behind these bloody massacres, using the Indians for his own evil scheme. The Rio Kid vowed to find out – but there was a $2000 price on his head and a vicious gang of fortune-hunters hot on his trail.

An avalanche of terror was unleashed on the defenceless Kansas settlers; the most feared Indian warrior in the West had joined forces with an avaricious white gun-dealer.

Chief Roman Nose drove his vicious Dog Soldiers on a fanatical mission – to torture and destroy every white man on the Plains. But he was just a pawn in the renegade’s diabolical quest for power and gold.

One man stood in their way: the Rio Kid. Guns blazing, he was lured across the Plains – towards a fiendish and deadly trap.

Original title: The Mormon Trail

Across the rivers and through the narrow passes of Rainbow Valley they moved – cattle ranchers and sheepmen – headed for the promised Utah land of their beloved leader, Brigham Young.

Then suddenly, from the red-shadowed ledges above, cold-eyed men with rifles took careful aim…

It seemed much too late for anyone to save them – even the Rio Kid himself.

Cover Gallery: FOXX

by Zack Tyler

Meet Foxx, chief detective of the C&K Railroad. He’s tracking a pack of killers to their lair in the treacherous Nevada hills.

First he sets his trap in a San Francisco jail. Then he stalks his prey across the desolate mesas. Pursued by women whose passions lead to murder…pursuing a gang of men who settle debts in blood, all he has is a quick draw, a wily mind, and one last, deadly gamble: surprise.

The prospectors were lined up against the homesteaders in simmering Sherman, Kansas, where gold-rush fever had the town trigger-taut. That was when Foxx rode in to settle the dust so the C&K Railroad could resume construction of its brand-new southern spur.

Foxx was a cool hand at danger, but he hadn’t counted on the hired gun who was Sherman’s only law…or the land-scam kingpins who sealed their contracts in lead…or Romy, the beautiful Pinkerton detective who made it clear she was out to uncover a lot more in Kansas than trouble!

Their guns were still smoking when Foxx lit out after the Clark gang, wanted for robbery and murder on the C&K Railroad. Armed with his Smith & Wesson, a few raw clues, and his Comanche-honed instincts, Foxx followed a dangerous trail that led from a dusty southwest café through a maze of outlaw hideouts. Almost thrown off the track by the wiles of two hot-blooded women who wouldn’t take no for an answer, Foxx made it from Hell’s Half Acre to New Mexico’s treacherous Cañón Quimera where luck ran out and the shooting began…

Foxx rides herd on a payload of cattle through the snowbound hell of Wyoming Territory armed with only a ragtag trail gang and unflagging endurance.

It’s a new job for the chief detective of the C&K Railroad – an innocent-sounding longhorn drive that’s mined with blizzards, bison, and an army of angry Sioux. But the biggest hazard of all is the one Foxx least expects – a lonely beauty who comes along for the ride and turns their trail of trouble into a hotbed of tension – and a stampede for survival!

They were vicious killers determined to stop the C&K Railroad’s eastern spur…a gang of Spanish and Apache night riders who left a trail of scalped and mutilated bodies in their wake.

The stakes were high and the fight was dirty as Foxx rode into the lawless Arizona Territory to check out the rowdy railhead camp where the violence began. It looked like sabotage from within. But who was calling the shots and why? Foxx finally found his lead in a Queen of Spades who was playing with a stacked deck and a loaded pistol in a game she couldn’t afford to lose.

Foxx was doing the honors, pouring champagne for Vida Martin, when the bullet shattered the plate-glass window. The second slug slammed into the table. Someone had just missed his target, and that target was Foxx’s lady.

Armed with his .44 Cloverleaf Colt and a beautiful Pinkerton detective – a seductive decoy – Foxx rode the C&K out of San Francisco headed for the Idaho badlands. Setting himself up as a sitting duck, he swore to flush out a vicious outlaw – a foe from the past – someone who wanted revenge in the worst way and wouldn’t hesitate to kill a lady to get it. 

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The Foxx series was published by Dell, the first book appearing in January 1981 and the last in September 1982. Zach Tyler is a pseudonym used by Melvin Marshall.