Showing results by author "Matt Braun" in All Categories

Dan Stuart plans to stage the prizefight of the century. But soon he finds the path to riches strewn with obstacles. Outraged politicians block Stuart at every turn, and a gang of robbers led by a sharp-shooting beauty has plans of its own: the heist of the century. Stuart has two champion pugilists, five gunmen, Bat Masterson, and Judge Roy Bean in his corner. Now, with his team set to score and the Texas Rangers hot on his trail, the West's first boxing promoter is desperately searching for a place to hold his fight. And when he finds it, what a hell of a fight it will be....

The Osage Indians lost their ancestral freedom on a windswept reservation in Oklahoma. Now, in the Roaring Twenties, the land is spewing black gold; oil has been found, and every Osage owns a share of the rights. Soon Osage tribal members are being killed for their oil royalties while a corrupt sheriff turns his back on the murders, Special Agent Frank Gordon organizes and undercover operation while working openly with frontier legend US marshal Will Proctor.

America's richest legends come from the frontier - from the land where the events of a single moment might erase the lines between law and lawlessness, between safety and mortal danger, between heroes and villains. The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers. Here is the most varied collection of short stories by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

Luke Starbuck knew Death’s designs were as uncompromising as justice, and as cold and final as an unmarked grave. But when Wyatt Earp and his gang were ambushed one moonlit evening and Earp emerged from the barrage of shotgun fire very much alive, Starbuck began to wonder if there was more to the ambitious, flint-eyed desperado than met the eye.

In 1889 Bill Tilghman joined the historic land rush that transformed a raw frontier into Oklahoma Territory. A lawman by trade, he set aside his badge to make his fortune in the boomtowns. Yet Tilghman was called into service once more, on a bold, relentless manhunt that would make his name a legend for all time - in an epic confrontation with outlaw gang leader Bill Doolin.

With outlaws wrecking havoc left and right, a cow town in Texas is on the brink of becoming a ghost town. That's when it's time to call in Chicago-based Pinkerton agent Ash Tallman and his partner Vivian Valentine. Going undercover as a handsome, charming drifter, Ash is always ready with his gun and popular with the ladies. And the lovely, vivacious Viv plays the role of a fervent evangelist, offering salvation with the promise of a sweeter reward to any sinner who can give her clues.

In the summer of 1871, a gang threatening the residents of Newton, Kansas gunned down a lawman named McCluskie. Ninety seconds later, five of the attackers were dead, picked off by a consumptive 17-year-old named Kinch Riley. After avenging the murder of his mentor, Kinch disappeared from the pages of history. Although the rest of Riley’s life wasn’t recorded, his name and lightning speed with a gun live on in Western lore. Braun studied old newspaper articles and records of eyewitness accounts to recreate what might have happened in the last year of this enigmatic young man’s life.

They'd killed five men already and stolen a quarter of a million dollars in silver and gold. Now a band of vicious thieves has drawn the best man that Wells Fargo can send: the rangy, mysterious Chicago-based Pinkerton agent named Ash Tallman. An operator who works with a pleasure-loving beauty who goes by many names and does her best work in the least amount of clothes, Tallman is heading to Red Rock, Arizona territory.

Winner of the Golden Spur, Matt Braun writes novels with an unparalleled knowledge of the West.

In the harsh land of New Mexico, Clint and Virgil Brannock keep a sharp eye on their ranch, the Rio Hondo, and family, lest cheats and hustlers move in. When corrupt attorney Stephen Benton and his Santa Fe Ring threaten the ranch, the two brothers realize they must fight for the land and livelihood they cherish, or die trying.

Matt Braun turns the classic elements of tough men and rough land into westerns that ring with authenticity. A native of the West and author of 31 novels, he bases many of his book on historic records. Deadwood draws on accounts of the infamous Butch Cassidy and his gang. The mountains and canyons of Dakota Territory create the perfect hideout for lawless men—Hole-in-the-Wall.

He was an Indian fighter turned trailblazer and cattleman. Then he risked it all for a spread of Texas land in the uncharted Llano Estacado - and for the adventure of a lifetime. Jack Jordan was a legend before he turned 30. But his greatest quest lay ahead. he came to a breathtaking canyon called Palo Duro with a herd of cattle, a courageous woman, and an iron will. Jordan had already made and lost fortunes. Now he would make an extraordinary stand - with a fast gun and a vision that wouldn't die.

Jack Stillman has come from Cheyenne to Tenbow Valley to solve a string of murders. Each victim was a landowner in the valley, and each killing was carried out with a long range rifle. Taking on the guise of a gambler, Stillman is quick to line up his suspects and start prying open their secrets. Suddenly, in a land of wild honeysuckle, snowy mountain peaks, and the spirits of native warriors, the veteran lawman realizes he's made a fatal mistake and missed a motive as old as time itself.

Three Brannock brothers came west. Now, only one of them survives, and Clint Brannock feels the weight of responsibility as a U.S. deputy marshal. Hunting down an outlaw in the Indian territories, Clint meets up with two of his nephews one destined to live or die by the gun, the other to live or die in his shadow. And in southern New Mexico, a beautiful sister-in-law, Elizabeth, presides over 100,000 rich acres and dabbles in a dangerous game.

The Brannock brothers have very different dreams for their lives in the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest. Virgil is a railroad man; Clint is in the Calvary; and Earl has settled in with the Comanches. Their paths cross in a fatal gun battle that puts their code of honor to the test.

He came from the American South, a gentleman by breeding, a dentist by training, a gambler by vocation. But as Dr. John H. Holliday, a man fleeing his tragic past, drifted across the West, living among some of the roughest men on the frontier, word spread quickly he never walked away from a fight, and he never drew too late.Now, from Dodge City to Denver and Cheyenne, from boomtown to sinkholes, "Doc" Holliday was driven by the demons of his past, a skilled gambler and a seasoned mankiller....

In California, the Southern Pacific Railway was prying the West wide open, and the land was worth its weight in gold. While some men got in on the action, and some got out of the way, one group of settlers was making a stand and holding up the railway. Turning to Alan Pinkerton's Chicago detective agency, the railroad robber barons hire the perfect agent to penetrate the settlers' organization, a man who had learned a spy's trade in the Civil War. Tall, debonair, and pleasure-loving Ash Tallman can fight when he has to.

Matt Braun's Spur Award-winning Dakota tells the compelling story of Teddy Roosevelt's foray into rugged Dakota Territory. Stunned by a Valentine's Day telegram, Teddy Roosevelt reached his Manhattan home just in time to watch death claim first his mother and then his wife on that dark day in 1884. Abandoning a promising political career, 25-year-old Teddy sought the healing solace of the Dakota Bad Lands.

It is 1881. El Paso, the wildest border town in an untamed Texas, is at a crossroads. A booming sin city crawling with corrupt politicians and gunslick outlaws, the town now faces its greatest challenge: the savagery of the notorious Banning Brothers. Dallas Stoudenmire is the marshal El Paso has hired to bring a quick end to the Bannings' reign of terror. Bloodshed erupts as the Bannings hire an assassin to send Stoudenmire to an early grave. Now the former Texas ranger will rely on nerves and a quick gun to save his own life - and bring swift justice to a desperate town....

John Wesley Hardin's powderkeg temper earned him twelve bodies by age twenty—and a place at the top of the Texas MOST WANTED list. Now a happy husband and a father, he thinks his fighting days are over and done. Until he's ambushed by an angry loser in a local poker game… Soon the law is on Wes's trail again, but this time he's got too much at stake. Hardin only wants peace—but he's willing to wage a one-man war to stay free.