Lee Slater and his gang of lowlife desperadoes didn't know that Smoke Jensen had given up his gunslinger status to become a family man. Stirring up a motherlode of trouble was their first mistake. Shooting Smoke's wife Sally was their second. Chances are, they're not going to live to make a third.

William W. Johnstone is legend in contemporary fiction. From his towering westerns to his edgy thrillers, Johnstone captures the true American spirit. Now, in this blockbuster new novel torn from today's headlines, Johnstone puts us on the frontlines of a new war: for the borders of America itself.Vengeance Is MineThey've already started coming across. The drug dealers and the petty criminals. The terrorists and the parasites. For one man on the West Texas border, the time to stand against them is now. John Howard Stark, a Vietnam vet whose family has worked their ranch for generations, has set off a trip wire—and an ambush has exploded all around him. A Columbian drug cartel commander, with the help of an ex-special forces hit man and his own deadly army, has killed three Americans—including Stark's uncle and his neighbor—and will slaughter anyone else who stands in his way. The local law is in his pocket and the Border Patrol is powerless to...

The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st CenturyTwo outlaw brothers have been leaving a blood-trail on their way to infamy on the western frontier. Until bounty hunter Luke Jensen catches one of the black-hearted Kroll brothers away from his gang. But while Luke is trying to get Mordecai Kroll from jail to justice, he's ambushed by the Kroll gang and taken prisoner. And that draws Luke's own brother Smoke Jensen into the fight, guns drawn...Brothers By Blood. Brothers By Battle.With Smoke Jensen comes fire—adopted son Matt and lifelong friend Preacher, who storm into battle to save Luke Jensen from the Krolls. With trigger-happy back-stabbers, cutthroat outriders, and murdering devils joining the fray, the deadly mayhem paints the harsh landscape an unforgiving red—a place where Jensen's enemies go to die...

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY The first book in a magnificent new series by America's bestselling Western writer: here is the towering saga of Breckenridge Wallace, a new breed of intrepid pioneer who helped forge a path through the wild American frontier... THE FRONTIERSMAN In Tennessee, 17-year-old Breckinridge Wallace knew the laws of nature. When his life was in danger, he showed a fearless instinct to fight back. Killing a thug who was sent to kill him got Breckinridge exiled from his Smoky Mountain home. Brutally wounding an Indian attacker earned him an enemy for life... Now, from the bustling streets of St. Louis to the vast stillness of the Missouri headwaters, Breckinridge is discovering a new world of splendor, violence, promise and betrayal. Most off all, he is clawing his way to manhood behind the law of the gun. Because the trouble he left in Tennessee won't let him go. A killer stalks his...

Enter Valentino, a mild-mannered UCLA film archivist. In the surreal world of Hollywood filmdom, truth is often stranger than celluloid fiction. When Valentino buys a decrepit movie palace and uncovers a skeleton in the secret Prohibition basement, he's not really surprised. But he's staggered by a second discovery: long-lost, priceless reels of film: Erich von Stroheim’s infamous Greed.The LAPD wants to take the reels as evidence, jeopardizing the precious old film. If Valentino wants to save his find, he has only one choice: solve the murder within 72 hours with the help of his mentor, the noted film scholar Broadhead, and Fanta, a feisty if slightly flaky young law student.Between a budding romance with a beautiful forensics investigator and visions of Von Stroheim’s ghost, Valentino’s madcap race to save the flick is as fast and frenetic as a classic screwball comedy.  A quirky cast of characters, smart dialogue and a touch of romance make this Estleman's most engaging and accessible novel to date.From Publishers WeeklyHaving appeared in 10 short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, self-described film detective Valentino, who works as a film archivist at U.C.L.A., makes his novel-length debut in the engaging first of a new series from Shamus-winner Estleman. Valentino stumbles on the find of a lifetime when he inspects the Oracle, a decaying 1920s movie theater he's considering purchasing. An abandoned storage room contains reels of film that may be the only surviving prints of Erich von Stroheim's legendary epic, Greed. The further discovery of a skeleton of unknown vintage in the old building complicates matters. Aided by academic colleagues, Valentino tries to eat his cake and have it, too, by cooperating with the police inquiry into what might be a case of foul play without revealing the existence of the film reels, which he fears might be damaged if seized as evidence. While the lighthearted tone is far removed from the gritty realism of the author's Amos Walker series (American Detective, etc.), the versatile Estleman has crafted yet another intelligent page-turner. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review Genre veteran Estleman debuts a new and wonderfully entertaining series starring a UCLA film archivist. Departing dramatically from the classic hard-boiled style of his Amos Walker novels, Estleman has concocted a jaunty, thoroughly endearing screwball comedy-mystery in which the aptly named archivist Valentino teams with a venerable film historian and a hip, slightly loopy grad student to solve a murder, rehab a movie palace, and restore a long-lost, uncut print of the Erich von Stroheim classic Greed. It all starts when Valentino buys the crumbling theater and finds the abandoned reels of von Stroheim’s film in a walled-off storage room. Unfortunately, there is also a skeleton in the closet, the remains of a long-ago murder, and the police demand that Valentino surrender the film canisters within 72 hours or face prosecution. That leaves him three days to solve the crime or risk having the police mishandle and potentially ruin the fragile film. As Valentino and his buddies careen about Los Angeles, visiting a home for retired movie workers and researching the provenance of the movie palace, Estleman smoothly seeds the text with all manner of fascinating details relating to the history of silent films and the techniques of modern film restoration. There’s even time for a nifty romance between Valentino and an LAPD forensics investigator. Great cast, great subject, flawless delivery from a real pro. --Bill Ott

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITER OF THE 21ST CENTURY JUSTICE GETS ITS REVENGE Jamie Ian and Kate MacCallister are together now, buried side by side on a ridge overlooking the huge Colorado valley they had settled and the town they had founded. It's up to their children now to carry on the MacCallister legacy. Falcon MacCallister is more than willing to take on that task. He's the spitting image of his father, Jamie. He stands six foot three and is heavy with muscle. Just like his father, Falcon is quick on the shoot. Lightning quick. Now, after the cowardly murder of his father, Falcon is out for revenge against the Noonan gang. On his quest, he'll become embroiled in the deadly Wyoming Range Wars and face down the notorious Silver Dollar Kid, before coming face to face with Nance Noonan himself.

Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone faces the case of his career in the newest novel in the bestselling series. When a woman's partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. Identifying the woman is just the first step in what proves to be an emotionally charged investigation. Florence Horvath was an attractive, recently divorced heiress from Florida; she also had a penchant for steamy sex and was an enthusiastic participant in a video depicting the same. Somehow the combination of her past and present got her killed, but no one is talking-not the crew of the Lady Jane, the Fort Lauderdale yacht moored in Paradise Harbor; not her very blond, very tan twin sisters, Corliss and Claudia; and not her curiously affectless parents, living out a sterile retirement in a Miami high rise. But someone-Jesse-has to speak for the dead, even if it puts him in harm's way.

Johnstone Country. Frontier Spirit Lives Here.There are a lot of ways a man can end up on a wanted poster. There's the easy way (murder), there's the hard way (robbery), and then there's Dooley Monahan's way (by accident.) On the trail west with his trusty horse and dog, the hapless gunslinger stops a mean, hungry bear from making lunch out of the legendary Buffalo Bill Cody. In turn, Cody grubstakes Dooley for the purchase of a silver mine in the lawless, violent boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. Dooley can't believe his good luck. But when he guns down three deadly outlaws, the grateful townsfolk pin a sheriff's badge on Dooley. And that's when his luck runs out . . .Turns out there's a war going on between two rival gangs. Stagecoaches are being robbed every other day, and fingers are being pointed at Dooley himself. There's a tradition here in these parts, he discovers. If a sheriff's no good, they hang him. And if the next one's no better, they hang him twice . . .

The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st CenturyDuff MacCallister is heir to a fierce family of fighting Scotsmen. In a new land, in the extraordinary new saga by bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone, Duff gives new meaning to the words without mercy. Cut Off The Head--The Beast Will Die.The Indians around Fort Laramie, Wyoming are peaceful. Or so it has seemed--until killers ambush a detail of U.S. soldiers and an officer's wife. One man, an ambitious cavalry officer, flees the carnage and lives to tell the story--his own story, an outright lie. When Duff MacCallister and a few brave men go after the attackers, they discover the officer's wife is very much alive and at the cold merciless hands of the sadistic warrior Yellow Hawk. To free the woman, Duff touches off a fierce battle. And when he finds himself surrounded by the blood-crazed renegades, MacCallister knows there is only one way out--by going after Yellow Hawk himself. . . First Time In Print!

William W. Johnstone is the premier chronicler of the American West--and of the brand of iron-willed men who would define a nation. His action-packed novels capture the untamed frontier in all its glory, tragedy and brutality--as ordinary Americans wage extraordinary battles to settle an unforgiving land. Now, Johnstone returns to the saga of the drifting gunman Frank Morgan, a man willing to walk into any storm--and blast his way out again. . .Shoot First. Die Last.On the border between Mexico and Texas, Frank Morgan is caught between two warring ranchers, men who speak different languages but share the same stubborn courage--and are both being terrorized by a raider called the Black Scorpion. Texas Rangers are struggling to bring law and order to the chaos. But as the air is split by the sound of gunfire and men and women die, Morgan starts to see a different picture--and even comes face to face with the Black Scorpion himself. Suddenly, amidst deceptions,...