J.A. Johnstone

William W. Johnstone

Down the Dark Streets

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WHERE OTHERS FEAR TO TREAD. From the bestselling authors of The Doomsday Bunker, Black Friday, and Stand Your Ground comes the explosive story of a college under siege—and freedom under fire . . . POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WON’T SAVE YOU Former Army Ranger Jake Rivers is not your typical Kelton College student. He is not spoiled, coddled, or ultra-lib like his classmates who sneer at the “soldier boy.” Rivers is not “triggered” by “microaggressions.” He is not outraged by “male privilege” and “cisgender bathrooms.” He does not need a “safe space.” Or coloring books. Jake needs an education. And when terror strikes, the school needs Jake . . . Without warning, the sounds of gunfire plunge the campus into a battle zone. A violent gang of marauders invade the main hall, taking students as hostages for big ransom money. As a veteran and patriot, Jake won’t give in to their demands. But to fight back, he needs to enlist his fellow classmates to school these special snowflakes in the not-so-liberal art of war. This time, the aggression isn’t “micro.” It’s life or death. And only the strong survive . . . Live Free. Read Hard.

Trigger Warning

The national bestselling western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone give us a completely new western adventure centering on one man's battle to carve out justice one bullet at a time in the untamed territories of Colorado. JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WHERE BLOOD RUNS COLD John Holt is a traveling gunslinger. He’s been liberating dirty towns west of the Mississippi of murdering outlaw trash ever since the Civil War ended. No questions asked. Payment on demand. The only way out of this town is in a pinewood box. Holt’s latest job is in Devil’s Gulch in Colorado Territory. But wiping out bands of bank robbers is just the beginning. More disorder is brewing, and the skittish mayor has handpicked Holt as the new sheriff. Holt is what the town needs: a mercenary with a badge, a loaded Remington, and a deadeye-aim for trouble. Devil’s Gulch has the vigilance committee. The man behind it—Joe Mullen, the largest rancher and mine owner in the valley—isn’t keen on an outsider like Holt muscling in on a good thing. Mullen already has his hand in all the crime in Devil’s Gulch. He also triggers it. He likes keeping things wild. With the barbaric Bostrom brood under his command, he’s hoping it stays that way. Holt quickly finds himself on familiar ground: up against cutthroats on the other side of the only law that counts. Holt’s law. Devil’s Gulch is his town now. And he’s itching to clean it till it sparkles.

Devil's Gulch

A Riveting Western Novel of the American Frontier

Go West, Young Man

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. No one knows better than the American masters of epic Western fiction that forging a new life on the frontier takes hope, drive, and plenty of ammunition. The war is over. But a new battle is on the horizon. Based on true events. It’s 1852. The wounds of the Mexican War are healing. Regis Royle, co-owner of a steamship fleet, has made it out alive, relatively unscarred and with enough profit and foolhardy ambition to envision a new life in south Texas. With the help of his crack-shot kid brother Shepley, his glad-handing riverboat partner Cormac Delany, and his old friend, raw-edged former Texas Ranger Jarvis “Bone” McGraw, Regis is laying claim to the prime jewel in a magnificent rolling prairie: the Santa Calina range teeming with wild mustangs, cattle, and eighteen-thousand acres of lush promise. But all dreams have a price. For Regis, it’s hell to pay—and the fire is coming at him from all directions. On one side of the border, it’s banditos and a vengeful Mexican heiress with a passionate hatred for greenhorn gringos. Especially those who have their eye on land once owned by her family. On the other side, the Apaches, slave traders, and outlaws have Santa Calina in their sights. And none of them are going to walk away from the bloody battle. The brothers Royle and their partners have the most to lose—including their lives. They made a pledge to themselves to build the greatest ranch in America. To see it through to the end, they’ll have to ride hard and learn the bitter necessity of violence and bloodshed.

A Novel of the American West

Forever Texas

Join an epic cross-country journey on the Oregon Trail set just before the start of the Civil War. Two brave, pioneering families will head West and confront hardships and triumph, in this spellbinding saga from the legendary bestselling authors… Missouri, 1860. Rumors of war between the North and South are spreading across the land. In rural Green County, many of the farmers are already choosing sides. But not John Zachary. His loyalties lie with his family first—and his heart is telling him to go west. Hoping to build a new life in the fertile valleys of Oregon, he convinces his best friend, Emmett Braxton, to pack up their families and join him on a wagon train across the Oregon Trail. The journey will be long and hard. The physical hardships and grueling mental challenges will bring out the best in some—and the worst in others. But with the guidance of an experienced wagon master and scout, they are determined to reach their destiny, no matter how high the cost . . . Twenty-seven wagons. Twenty-seven different hopes and dreams. This sprawling epic novel from a master storyteller captures the beauty and danger of the American West—and the pioneer spirit of those who tamed it . . .

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WILDER THAN EVER. Welcome to the Lost Coyote Saloon. Saddle up to the bar and order a whiskey. Play a few hands of poker. But don’t make any trouble. The new owner is savage. Ben Savage. Once a Texas Ranger, he’s always cocked and ready for some fool to come looking for payback . . . EAT, DRINK, AND BE WARY When Ben Savage receives a telegram informing him that an old friend died—and left him his saloon—he’s not sure what to think. Western saloons are as wild as it gets, full of rowdy ranchers and cocky cowboys, high-stakes gamblers and low-life drifters, hard liquor and easy women. Then there’s the occasional outlaw gang. But when Savage travels to Buzzard’s Bluff, Texas, to check out his inheritance, he meets the saloon’s lovely manager, Rachel Baskin, and has a change of heart. As an experienced lawman, he figures he can run a decent establishment. Keep things friendly, peaceful, and orderly. There’s just one problem: as a longtime Pinkerton agent, Ben has made a lot of enemies. And some of them are bound to turn up in his saloon—thirsty for whiskey . . . and revenge . . . Live Free. Read Hard.

Buzzard's Bluff

Johnstone Country. A New Legend in the Making. The bestselling Johnstones kick off their blazing new western series with a real bang—a fatal, fateful shootout that sends a man named Buck Trammel on the ride of his life . . . WHEN WYATT EARP TELLS YOU TO RUN, YOU RUN. Once upon a time in the Old West, Buck Trammel was a Pinkerton agent with a promising future. But after a tragic incident in a case gone wrong, he struck out for the wide-open spaces of Wichita, Kansas. Working as a bouncer at The Gilded Lily Saloon, he hopes to stay out of trouble. But soon enough, his gun skills are put to the test. The Bowman gang shows up, turning a friendly card game with a Wyoming cattleman into a killer-takes-all shooting match. Buck saves the cattleman’s life, but at the cost of Bowman’s two sons. That’s when Deputy Wyatt Earp arrives. He warns Buck that he’d better get out of town, pronto, and take the cattle baron with him. The rest is history—if he lives long enough to tell it . . . This is the story of Buck Trammel. Hunted by outlaws. Fighting for justice. Marked for death. This is how legends are born . . . Live Free. Read Hard.

North of Laramie

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. HOME OF THE BRAVE. THEY WILL INVADE YOUR HOME. Home, Texas. Two men break into the house of an elderly couple. Guns are fired. Blood is spilled. When one of the intruders sues the victim—and wins—the good people of Home take the law into their own hands. Their battle, though, is just beginning. In a stunning case of backward justice—the U.S. President decides to make the town a test case to strike down the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: Ban all guns in Home, Texas. And to enforce it, the newly formed national police force is sent in. THEY WILL TAKE YOUR WEAPONS. Unarmed. Defenseless. Denied their civil right to bear arms, the citizens of Home are now easy targets for America’s closest enemies—the Mexican drug cartels who spill across the border every day. This time, they’ve set their sights on a secret military arsenal. But they need a base of operations. And there’s no place like Home. BUT THEY WON’T DESTROY YOUR SPIRIT. Police Chief Wade Bonner is one of the few in town permitted to carry a gun. But Bonner knows that his friends and neighbors will never surrender their freedoms—or submit to an outside enemy, no matter how strong or ruthless. Soon they will be put to the test. Because the war is coming home. And Home is fighting back. Live Free. Read Hard.

Home Invasion

From the bestselling authors of Tyranny and Stand Your Ground comes the explosively charged story of a full-scale terrorist attack on American soil—on the biggest shopping day of the year . . . DAY OF RECKONING Black Friday. The American Way Mall is packed with holiday shoppers and bargain seekers. Machine-gun fire rings out, and within minutes hundreds are dead and dying. Others are taken hostage by an army of fanatical Middle Eastern terrorists ready to blast the American Way Mall into a pile of rubble. But one man—Iraq War vet Tobey Lanning—refuses to go down without a fight. Separated from his soon-to-be fiancée, Lanning finds himself on the frontlines of a new war against terror. The FBI and the local police are helpless. The battle is going to be lost or won inside the mall. With thousands of innocent lives at stake, Lanning assembles a makeshift platoon of Black Friday shoppers. A teenage security guard. A retired Chicago cop. A school teacher who’s never fired a gun. A young ex-con who has. A soccer mom. A priest. A wheelchair-bound WWII vet . . . These brave everyday Americans will stand up and meet the enemy face to face. Defend their land, their values, their honor—and if necessary pay the ultimate price for freedom . . .

Black Friday

From bestselling authors William W. and J.A. Johnstone comes the fiery saga of Perley Gates, a legend born out of the brutality and violence of the American West . . . He’s the son of a cattle rancher. A restless young dreamer who, under normal circumstances, would follow in his father’s footsteps. Normal, however, is not his style. Like his famous grandfather and namesake Perley Gates—a hell-raising mountain man with a heavenly name—young Perley wants adventure, excitement, and freedom. And like his grandfather before him, he will find his dream—in the untamed wilds of a lawless frontier . That dream though might just become a nighmare . . . After his father’s death, Perley strikes out on his own. His first order of business is to track down the grandfather whose name he shares. When he crosses into Oklahoma Territory, young Perley discovers that the trail is full of dead ends—and near-death encounters. Hostile Indians, wanted outlaws, and bloodthirsty killers are just a few of the dangers waiting for him. And the closer he gets to finding the original Perley Gates, the closer he comes to meeting his Maker at the fabled gates they’re named for . . .

The Legend of Perley Gates

A Texas rancher family confronts the deadly forces of both man and nature in this Western saga by the USA Today–bestselling authors. After a two-year drought, the Kerrigan ranch is dry as a bone and as dusty as a honky-tonk bible. On the brink of ruin, Kate is desperate enough to try anything. She even hires a rainmaker—Professor Somerset Lazarus—who promises salvation in the form of a deluge. But when four angry gunmen show up, ready to lynch the phony rainmaker for swindling them out of their money, the Kerrigans have to choose sides fast—before the bullets start to fly. It doesn’t take a divining rod to figure out that these unsatisfied customers want more than a refund. They have their sites set on the Kerrigan ranch. And it’s just a matter of time until it’s raining bullets . . .

Hate Thy Neighbor

John Henry Sixkiller must protect a New Mexico town—from its own sheriff—in this powerful Western from “a master storyteller” (Publishers Weekly). William W. Johnstone, the beloved, bestselling frontier chronicler, brings to life the story based on the historical lawman born and bred in Cherokee Nation: Sixkiller. In the wild, wild west there is no man more dangerous—on either side of the law. Three men dead. And Sixkiller might be next . . . The territorial governor has sent three lawmen to clean up the mess that is Chico, New Mexico—and not one of those lawmen has made it out alive. A crooked sheriff has the terrified denizens of Chico under his boot heel, so the governor turns to John Henry Sixkiller, sending him undercover as a gunman for hire. So far, Sixkiller has bloodied his opponents in every battle he’s fought in the Southwest. But this one could affect the entire country: A group of merciless land pirates have been hiding behind Chico’s brutal sheriff. Their goal: to take the entire territory hostage and sell it lock, stock and barrel to Mexico—gleefully slaughtering anyone who gets in the way . . .

Eight Hours to Die

In Utah the Loner finds religion—behind the barrel of a gun—in this blazing Western from the USA Today–bestselling author of Trail of Blood. SHOWER THE BRIDE WITH LEAD . . . The damsel is in distress, or so it seems to Conrad Browning. On his way across the wide, tall Utah territory to California, the Loner meets a beautiful Mormon girl on the run from a forced wedding—and the gun-toting faithful trying to hunt her down. But there are two sides to every story—and the ones you don’t hear are the ones that can get you killed. The runaway bride has a little history of her own. Soon, the Loner touches off a storm of unholy gunfire, drawing blood from an outlaw and a death sentence from a patriarch. Among murderers and Mormons, Bibles and bullets, the Loner finds himself riding to a wedding—a ceremony he intends to crash with a vengeance . . . “There is plenty of exciting action . . . The author springs a surprising twist to the tale.” —Western Fiction Review

The Blood of Renegades

FIRST RULE OF JOHNSTONE COUNTRY: TRUST NO ONE No one knows the dangers of driving a stagecoach better than Red Ryan. Especially when the passenger’s a dead man, the payoff’s a gold mine, and the last stop is death . . . SECOND RULE: WATCH YOUR BACK Red Ryan should’ve known this job would be trouble. The first stop is a ghost town—in a thunder storm—and the cargo is a coffin. But things start to look a little brighter when Red and his stage guard Buttons Muldoon deliver the corpse to a ranch run by the beautiful Luna Talbot—and her gorgeous crew of former saloon girls. Luna asks the boys to help them find the Lucky Cuss Gold Mine, using a map tucked inside the dead man’s pocket. Buttons can’t refuse a pretty lady—or the lure of gold. But Red has a feeling they’re playing with fire. Especially when the map leads them straight into crossfire of a ferocious range war, a 400-pound load of pure evil known as Papa Mace Rathmore—and his backwoods clan of sadistic, kill-crazy hillbillies . . . Live Free. Read Hard.

The Backstabbers

USA Today-Bestselling Author: A rancher treks from Wyoming to Texas to deliver his cattle—but first he’ll have to deliver justice to a band of kidnappers… The MacCallister family is legendary in the American frontier. And wherever a MacCallister travels, the legend--and the guns--follow. Fight Like The Devil When Duff MacCallister journeys to Texas to deliver 100 head of Angus cattle, he finds a land on fire. Unruly, lawless teams of fence cutters, branded Blue Devils by the locals, are rampaging across grazing land and cutting fences in the name of an eastern land company. The ranchers are fighting back, and Duff joins the fray. But the fight leads to Austin, and into an even deadlier mission. The governor's daughter has been kidnapped by Blue Devils. Duff and his partner Elmer are willing to go after her, but they're going to need more men and a lot more firepower. The best the governor can do is three outlaws who once served honorably in war. Now Duff MacCallister is going up again a fanatical, highly trained enemy, riding with gunmen he cannot fully trust. Once the shooting starts, there is no turning back--because Duff and his posse are heading straight into the bloody depths of hell. “A masterful storyteller.”—Publishers Weekly

Ten Guns from Texas

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. VENGEANCE IS HERE. A good man like Perley Gates knows that when you race with the devil, you’d better cross the finish line first—or you won’t finish at all . . . They rode into town like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Four armed outlaws bringing their own brand of hell to Paris, Texas. First they rob the First National Bank. Then they take a woman hostage as insurance. When Perley Gates learns that local waitress Becky Morris is in the hands of these tough customers, he rides alone to get her back. Problem is, the outlaws are heading toward the Red River—straight into Indian Territory. That’s where the ranch hands draw the line. But Perley won’t give up. He manages to rescue the girl, but not before killing the gang’s leader. Now he’s incurred the wrath of the other three . . . The race is on. Come hell or high water, Perley has to get Becky across the Red River—before three vengeful devils make it flow with their blood . . . Live Free. Read Hard.

Red River Vengeance

Outlaws, snowstorms, rugged terrain—nothing will stop them from making it to Montana Territory in time for Christmas . . . “A masterful storyteller.” —Publishers Weekly From the masters of frontier fiction comes a holiday tale set in the very heart of America—a Western saga of courageous souls coming together, with a little help from the Jensen family . . . In the fall of 1873, a wagon train of immigrants sets off from Kansas City, Missouri, bound for the Montana Territory. Leading the group is newly elected wagonmaster Jamie Ian MacCallister, a giant of a man and frontier legend who swears he can get them there by Christmas—come hell or high snow drifts . . . Plagued by brutally harsh storms and rugged terrain, outlaws and hostile Indians, the journey will be the greatest challenge these pioneers will ever face. But when things look nearly hopeless, help arrives in the form of two unlikely saviors: an old mountain man known as Preacher and legendary frontiersman Smoke Jensen. Two hard-willed men who believe in the settlers' dreams with all their hearts—and who will get them to their destination by Christmas. Even if it takes a miracle . . .

A Big Sky Christmas

USA Today bestselling author: When a frontier household is brutally attacked, one woman is bent on vengeance . . . The Kerrigans have fought long and hard to carve out their own piece of heaven on the Texas frontier. And when evil comes knocking at their door, with guns blazing, there'll be hell to pay . . . No sympathy for the Devil It begins with a simple act of kindness—and ends in a shocking night of violence. A homeless family shows up on Kate Kerrigan's doorstep, seeking refuge from a vengeful rancher's wrath. Seeing their desperation—and fear—the West Texas matriarch welcomes the family into her home. But her charity turns out to be an invitation to disaster. First, the rancher and his henchmen come gunning for her houseguests. They break into Kate's mansion. They shoot her butler, brutalize her staff, and try to force themselves on Kate. Then the real slaughter begins. When the smoke clears, Kate vows to send these murderous bastards straight to hell. Even if she has to dance with the devil himself . . .

The Devil to Pay

Legendary national bestselling Western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone return with a blistering second installment in the new Stoneface Finnegan series. JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WHERE PEACE COMES FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN. Whether serving justice as a Pinkerton agent or serving drinks as a saloonkeeper, Stoneface Finnegan always lines up his shots to kill . . . GONE TO DEADWOOD The Pinkertons believe Rollie “Stoneface” Finnegan was the best agent to ever wear the badge. So does dewy-eyed Pinkerton hopeful and sleuth-in-training Tish Gray, who’s just arrived in Boar Gulch. As co-owner of Boar Gulch’s Last Drop Saloon, Stoneface is content slinging booze into guts instead of bullets. But when his partner Jubal “Pops” Tennyson needs help to rescue his daughter, Stoneface saddles up to take a hard ride into hell. Their destination is Deadwood, Dakota Territory, the notorious mining town and outlaw haven where folks can dig up a gold fortune or dig their own grave. Pops’ daughter is being held captive by the infamous Al Swearengen, owner of the Gem Theater, supplying whiskey, wagering, and women to the desperate, the destitute, and the dangerous.As naïve, young Tish goes undercover at the Gem to find Pops’ daughter, Stoneface and his partner are pinned down in the Black Hills by every trigger-happy gunslinger looking to collect the dead-or-alive bounty on Stoneface’s head . . . Live Free. Read Hard.

J.A. Johnstone

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