Ralph Compton

In this roller-coaster new installment in bestselling author Ralph Compton's Sundown Riders series, a young cowhand faces a trial by fire on his way to a new home and an old love. Fresh from a successful trail drive, cattle hand Seth Coe is feeling flush, especially after a lucky streak at the poker table. But his good fortune earns him a dangerous enemy, notorious tinhorn gambler Hannibal Fisher, who is none too happy about being cleaned out. The innocent Coe starts the long ride back to Texas with big plans to buy his own ranch. All he needs now, he figures, is a wife. To his amazement, in tiny Prairie Fire, Kansas he meets the perfect woman, his childhood love Josette Dubois. But she is under the thumb of her brutal father, who will stop at nothing to prevent her happiness, including killing Coe--that is, if Fisher doesn't get there first. . .

In this fast-paced new installment in bestseller Ralph Compton's The Gunfighter series, a man wrongly convicted of a crime is out of jail and looking for vengeance. Matt Wheeler was a legend in the West. His fast gun and dedication for justice made him a sought-after lawman for hire, but all of that vanished one dark night. Matt was convicted of murder for killing the man who killed his woman. Now he's spent his time in jail and is looking to even the score against the men who set him up.

In this breathless new installment in bestselling author Ralph Compton's the Gunfighter series, an ex-con fights to free his hometown from the clutches of a greedy land baron. When twenty-five-year-old Lewis Taylor is released from the Texas State Prison, he receives little attention as he walks into the midday sunlight, free after serving five years for a crime he didn't commit. His only interest is in getting back to his hometown of Gila Bend, Texas, a quiet farming community about which he has only warm, idyllic memories. During his long years in prison, he survived by thinking fondly of the home he'd known since boyhood--and of one special girl, Darla Winslow. What he finds instead is a town dramatically changed. Once a happy and carefree place to live, it is now populated by people who are angry and afraid. One man, Captain Archer Ringewald, has taken control of the town, and now he's turning the townspeople, even Darla, against Taylor. Can one ex-con single-handedly save an entire town?

In this new Ralph Compton Western, William "Bull" Kelly brings his five sons onto the cattle drive, but when rustlers stampede the herd and injure them, he'll do anything to protect his own. Over the past twenty years, William "Bull" Kelly acquired a reputation as one of the best ramrods in Texas. He has led legendary cattle drives to almost every railhead in the middle of the country. Most impressive of all, he once drove his herd all the way up to Montana. But after years of working for other people, he decided to run cattle on his own, with his five sons. Everything starts off fine, but when a group of cattle thieves try to stampede the herd, some of Kelly's sons are hurt in the melee. The rustlers quickly find out that Kelly isn't called "Bull" because he insists on riding at the head of the herd. He's called "Bull" because of his skill with the harsh whip coiled on his belt.

In this exciting new Ralph Compton western, a man without a memory meets an unforgettable ally: the one and only Bat Masterson. Riding into the town of Smoky River on a mangy mule, Dane looks as broken down as his old mount. His Stetson is ragged, his boots are tied together with leather thongs, and he wears a Colt Army revolver with exactly three bullets. He wouldn't know what to say if you asked him where he got the gun, or how he learned to shoot it so well. He doesn't know if Dane is his first name or his last. Something happened that cost him much of his memory, and he can't remember what that something was. For three years he's been traveling the West as a cowboy, a buffalo hunter, a farmhand. Smoky River looks to be a fine place to settle down. If only his past didn't decide to catch up to him here. . .

Two struggling miners may have just found their ticket to fortune--if they can keep it--in this riveting new Ralph Compton Western. England Dan Rutledge and his partner John Cooley have worked their claim for a year and are barely eking out a living. When Cooley shows up with a map of the abandoned Irish Lord Mine he drunkenly bought off a shady cowboy, England Dan is sure it's a complete fraud. After all, no one knows what happened to the most valuable gold mine in the Superstition Mountains after a banshee frightened off the last owner. But when England Dan gets a good look at the map, details start clicking into place. Maybe they have the key to a fortune after all But soon an infamous bank robber shows up looking for this mysterious map he claims is his. Now England Dan and his partner will have to fight off hostile Indians, miners, and a dangerous felon to find the cache of gold and strike it rich.

Two old ranch hands lead one last trail drive but they can't escape death along the way in a brand new thrilling western in Ralph Compton's trail drive series. Big Jake Motley had been running the Big M spread in Texas for over 30 years. In that time, he's driven thousands of head of cattle to market in Kansas. Now, while both the Nineteenth century and the era of trail drive are coming to an end, Big Jake is determined to make one last drive to Kansas. The only thing is, he doesn't have the cowhands to move that much beef. He drafts his old friend, Chance McCandles, into service, and together, the two aging cowboys put together a crew. The trail to Kansas is fraught with dangers both natural and man made, but when Chance is killed by rustlers, Big Jake has one more task in before him, extract vengeance for his old friend.

A man rides a path of vengeance in this all-new Ralph Compton Western in the Sundown Riders series. Luke Hadley never imagined he would be left for dead with a chest full of bullets on the day of his wedding. All he wanted to do was tend to his farm with his new wife, Audrey, and begin their lives together. But when the Rhodes Gang crashes his wedding party, they wreak havoc and abduct his bride, leaving the lifeless bodies of his guests. Luke has only a sparse trail of clues to follow, but with help from a phony Pinkerton badge and a mysterious woman with many skills--including breaking him out of jail--he finally rides down those who've wronged him.... "The greatest Western writer of them all."--The Tombstone Epitaph

A ruthless rancher crosses the wrong man in the "USA Today "bestselling series... Haunted by memories of the Civil War, Coy Jennings just wants to find work as a ranch hand and to begin saving for a small farm where he could finally enjoy peace and quiet. Arriving in the Texas settlement of Phantom Hill, Coy soon befriends a damaged but likable stable hand by the name of Ira Dalton and hopes for a future with a lovely widowed mother and her eight-year-old daughter. In order to make the Hill a decent place to settle down, Coy must wage a new kind of war and take a stand against ruthless ranch owner Lester Sinclair, his sadistic sons, and the murderous band of cattle rustlers who work for them. And after the Sinclairs turn on innocent Ira, Coy is driven to seek justice for his trusted friend...cost what it may."

There's trouble on the trail drive in this pulse-pounding Ralph Compton western. Chancy Gantry and Ollie Teal are honest cowpunchers, riding herd on fifteen hundred longhorns from Texas to Kansas. Their trail boss, Lucas Stout, is tough but fair. He's never lost a hand on a drive and doesn't aim to start now. So when a cowhand needs a sawbones bad, Stout sends Chancy and Ollie to escort the man to a town called Prosperity, which none of them has ever heard of. At first glance, the town looks deserted--but the saloon is full. The dusty denizens of Prosperity are happy to help the ailing cowboy, especially when they hear about the herd grazing a few miles away. Chancy and Ollie are about to discover that some towns are a lot easier to ride into than to ride out of.... More Than Eight Million Ralph Compton Books In Print

On a frontier torn by war and renegades, they carried a cargo more valuable than gold... Miners dug for fortunes. Soldiers died on open plains. And a few brave men drove the wooden freight wagons into the wild land. Now, master Western novelist Ralph Compton tells the real story of the tough-as-leather men who blazed the way into the untamed frontier. Once they drove longhorns. Now Mac Tunstall and his band of Texans must take a shipment of Winchesters by rail and wagon all the way to the U.S. Army in Austin. But from the moment the wagoneers set out, violence and treachery stalk their trail. From Dodge to the Brazos, half the outlaws on the frontier are aiming to get hold of an arsenal that could blow the West wide open. And Mac and his men don't see one danger until it's too late-four beautiful, headstrong women determined to share a trail of courage and tears all the way to the end.

An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune driving cattle from Texas to the Great Frontier. They left Missouri and were headed to Santa Fe. Standing in their way was a parched desert, a land of outlaws and enemies-and one man's dangerous past. He was a wealthy englishman with two beautiful daughters. They were five dusty texans and a gambling man. And they were all on the ride of their lives. The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-making trail drives. The Santa Fe Trail Gavin McCord and his brawling cowboys came to Missouri with a problem: 3,500 longhorns and not one buyer. That's where Gladstone Pitkin came in. A man with money and a dream of ranching in New Mexico, Pitkin bought McCord's cattle and hired his Texans for a trail drive from Independence to Santa Fe. But with an ill-fated gambler on the drive, the courageous, hardened riders weren't just a thousand brutal miles from Santa Fe-they were heading into a death trap.

From bestselling author Ralph Compton--the extraordinary saga of a death-defying mission across the Texas border into the blazing heart of the Mexican war... There are a thousand ways to die on a trail drive through Mexico. But a pair of bold Texans are willing to risk their lives, even take on Santa Anna's army, to lead a herd of wild longhorns northward--and save a convicted man's life... Set on rescuing a friend trapped inside war-torn Mexico, Gild and Van Austin, nephews of Texas founder Stephen Austin, cross the border and soon discover half of Mexico's army wants them dead. Taken prisoner by Santa Anna's soldiers, the brothers make a daring escape and head into Durango county, where they stumble upon a valley full of longhorns--and a chance to build a future north of the border. All they have to do now is break their friend out of prison and drive their cattle to safety. But faced with outlaws, soldiers, and one dangerous woman, the Austins are finding out that this isn't a trail drive, it's a battle to reach the Bandera Range alive. And the only way to do it is the Texan way--fighting every bloody, dusty mile ahead...