Jeffrey Galli

Los Angeles, 1969. Susan Abbott died as the result of an accidental house fire. The story in the Los Angeles Times had been clear about the facts. Her father, a film producer for MGM, read that same story but came away with something different: a murder masquerading as an accident. A conclusion not without justification, given that his daughter's husband had since flown the coop. Enter Jack Murphy, a private investigator with a no-nonsense reputation. He listened to the father's allegations but wasn't particularly interested in taking the case, until a retainer of $10,000 became part of the conversation. Murphy should have gone with his first inclination, because things were about to get murky.

Wyoming Territory, 1870. A lone horseman paused to adjust the sheepskin collar on his coat and to take in a faded signpost identifying a collection of weathered buildings in the distance as PARADISE. Without a tree in sight, the town bore no resemblance to any "paradise" as he understood the term, but finding shelter from the cold was his utmost concern. Had he known he would be riding into a hornet's nest, he might have settled for a campfire.

The only explanation that Jack Murphy received, before being roughed up and stuffed into the backseat of the Lincoln, was that the "Boss" demanded his presence. The boss in question turned out to be Don Giovanni Palmieri, West Coast crime lord, a man whom Murphy had never met-or so he thought. Palmieri needed a job done that could've been performed by any of his enforcers, but he'd chosen Murphy, a private detective who didn't have a proverbial "horse in the race." Under the circumstances, Murphy was obligated to accept. A mistake that would soon become readily apparent.

Born in Charles Dickens's London, the Walker brothers joined "The Great Mormon Migration" as children, when they were forced from their home in Nauvoo, Illinois. While beloved by Brigham Young for their service to the Church in times of trouble, they were also hunted as outlaws, with only a forgotten page of history to mark their passing. This, then, is their story.

Los Angeles, 1968. Through the good graces of an old friend, Jack Murphy, LA's premier private investigator, has been living temporarily in Bel Air, an enclave for the rich and famous. He'd been assured that once his neighbors realized they had a celebrated detective in their midst, he'd generate more work than he could handle. But his notoriety had produced nothing, until Rex Harper, silver-screen western legend, showed up at his door. By the end of the week, the air would be fouled with gun smoke.

Utah Territory, 1870. Deputy United States Marshal Ransom Parker, fresh from a four-year stint in Indian territory, was grateful to be assigned duty in "Mormon Country." He was tired of looking over his shoulder for Sioux raiding parties. Salt Lake City, with its cosmopolitan flair, was just what he needed, or so he thought. He had barely settled in before being confronted with a missing federal officer, presumed dead; the ritualistic killing of a young woman; and a county sheriff who knew more about each than he let on.

Los Angeles 1968. What's the worst that can happen? It wasn't a question contemplated by private detective Jack Murphy, until he returned from work to find his home ablaze and his family incinerated. A tragic accident? No, murder. And not the last, as mayhem stalked the city, much to the frustration of authorities. Motive? Unknown. Suspects? None. But the assailant had made a mistake by not killing Murphy. It would prove to be a fatal error.

Arizona Territory, 1881. Having left cattle-war-torn Wyoming the year before, Tom Keene has now found supposed tranquility for his family in the once sleepy town of Tombstone. Swirling around his bright future as a rancher, however, is a growing struggle between outlaw elements in the area and Wyatt Earp and his brothers, who have vowed to bring them to account for their crimes. Try as he might to remain only an observer, Keene is eventually drawn into the conflict with unforeseen consequences.

Wyoming Territory, 1880. Tom Keene, former lawman turned bounty hunter, has set aside his dangerous past to try his hand at ranching a quarter section of rangeland outside the sleepy frontier town of Eden. But he soon discovers that his paradise is overrun with snakes-the two-legged variety.

June 1968. Private detective Jack Murphy knew only too well the mantra of local television news outlets: If it bleeds, it leads. It wasn't surprising, then, that a late-breaking story-of which he'd been a part-took precedence that night: a shooting death at a Middle Eastern restaurant in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles. The following morning, however, any intended follow-up to that story was eclipsed by the reporting of another violent act-this one more high profile. Angelinos never made the connection between the two events-but Murphy did.

Private detective Jack Murphy has a hard-boiled reputation for attracting trouble. He's also a sucker for a pretty face and a great pair of legs. Enter dazzling Victoria Chandler. Her plea for help leads Murphy down a path that ends with the smell of gun smoke

March,1966. Jack Murphy is slowly adapting to the mundane duties of bartender and bouncer at the Irish pub owned by his wife, but it's a far cry from the life of a special agent in the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, from which he retired sixteen months ago. Then one evening, a Pentagon lawyer walks in with an envelope full of cash and a letter from High Command, requesting Murphy's services. For what, the letter doesn't explain, but Murphy jumps at the chance to get back into harness, if only for a short while. Several days later, and halfway around the world, he'll have reason to regret that decision.

Jack Murphy, former Army cop turned private detective, had never before tackled a missing persons investigation, but for $5000 in cold cash, there was always a first time. By week's end, however, with two killers on his heels, he figured that this case might just be his last.

France, 1964. A rainy night. A narrow, winding road. A speeding car. A violent crash. A subsequent assertion by the National Police that the fatal accident was merely the result of imperfect driving conditions. But for Jack Murphy, one of two U.S. Army investigators who, by happenstance, were first at the scene, the "official" version doesn't ring true. And when he and his partner, Daniel Burke, start asking questions, they are thrust into a deadly game of political intrigue that will bring the entire Continent to the brink of Armageddon.

Twenty-five years ago, Clark Redford was a rising star within the Central Intelligence Agency, until a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut cut short his ascent. Once a Cold War assassin, he is now trapped in a labyrinth of deceit where dark elements at the highest levels of government need him dead to cover up the past.

1892. Amid the chaos and corruption of Wyoming's Johnson County War, famed lawman Michael O'Rourke, framed for murder and sentenced to prison, mounts a desperate escape to Mexico where he builds a new life as a respected rancher, husband, and father. But when his pregnant wife is savagely killed, and his daughter abducted, O'Rourke must resurrect the man he once had been and confront the personification of evil who reigns with impunity just beyond his last strand of barbed wire.

Utah State Prison, 1963. An inmate is transferred into the custody of a federal marshal, then brutally interrogated, summarily shot, hastily disposed of, and forgotten. A quarter-century later, and quite by chance, skeletal remains of a body are unearthed on the periphery of prison property. Whose body is it? And given suggested evidence of murder, who did it and why? As the investigation advances, prison officials--Bill Lang and Tom Price--are drawn into a confrontation with shadowy figures who have no problem killing again to keep those questions from being answered.