The Vengeful Deputy

I’m pleased to report that Crowood Press have accepted my western The Vengeful Deputy. It’ll be my 37^th Black Horse Western and it should be published later in the year.

Here’s my draft blurb:

The town of Lone Ridge was a lawless hell-hole until the ruthless Nyle King provided order by eliminating all the gunslingers. With Nyle then controlling the town and ensuring that everyone who opposes him ends up dead, U.S. Marshal Caine tasks his deputy Gabriel Flynn with bringing Nyle to justice.

Gabriel goes to Lone Ridge, but only because he's been searching for the outlaw who killed his brother and Nyle may be the key to finding him. As it turns out, Nyle claims that the recent deaths in town aren't his work and that someone is trying to frame him.

With Gabriel no longer knowing who to trust, all he can be sure of is that only hard lead will unmask the guilty and let him finally have his vengeance.

Incident at Pegasus Heights now published

My 36th Black Horse Western is now available.

This is the second book to feature fossil-hunter Jim Dragon, except this time he's the main character. As with last month's Devine's Mission this book previously appeared as a Kindle title, which is still available.

This time Jim gets a sidekick in Elmina Fay, and I enjoyed writing her scenes so much I reckon she might just appear with Jim again one day . . .

When fossil-hunter Jim Dragon is on his way to Bear Creek to sell his latest discovery, he goes to the aid of a woman in distress, Elmina Fay. Unfortunately, Pierre Dulaine takes advantage of the situation and steals his fossils. Jim vows to reclaim his property and Elmina offers to help him, but only if he'll do something for her. She has heard a tale about the bones of a winged horse being found nearby and she wants Jim to find Pegasus' remains for her. At first, Jim is sceptical about embarking on such a mission, but before long he discovers that the truth behind the tale is even stranger than he could ever have imagined.

The Return of Elmer Drake

It always amuses me when characters that have appeared in the cover art of one of my books make a guest appearance on the cover of someone else's novel, so I was pleased to see the return of Elmer Drake in the latest batch of Black Horse Westerns.

Elmer appeared in the Linford Western version of Beyond Redemption, and I was delighted with that picture as Elmer is a religious nutjob and the cover had him lurking in bottom left hand corner appropriately brandishing both a gun and a cross.

Now he's appeared in Sam Clancy's Valley of Thunder where he's got a star pinned on his chest, presumably because he's given up on the cross and got hold of another gun.

Devine's Mission now published.

My 35th Black Horse Western is now available.

This book is the third to feature Marshal Jake T. Devine as the central character, and he's still using his traditional approach to law-enforcement of killing anyone who makes the mistake of threatening him.

I'd previously published this book as a Kindle title and it's still available now that the book has gone to hardback.

When Lachlan McKinley raided Fairmount Town's bank, the four-thousand dollar bounty that was posted on his head attracted plenty of manhunters, but everyone that went after him ended up dead. Bounty hunter Jonathon Lynch reckoned he could do better. Lachlan was Jonathon's step-brother and his mission was personal, but when he joined the hunt he soon discovered that all was not as it seemed and Lachlan may, in fact, be innocent. Worse, U.S. Marshal Jake Devine was also after Lachlan. Devine is more likely to destroy the peace than to keep it, and so can Jonathon bring the guilty to justice before Devine does his worst?

Marshal of the Barren Plains now published

My 34th Black Horse Western has now been published by Crowood.

This story returns to a location that I've used several times before of the harsh lands beyond the town of Redemption where few men would ever go if it wasn't for the silver mine at Bleak Point. The mine has been mentioned many times in previous books and several characters have set off for it, but this was the first time anyone has ever got there.

On first draft the story was called Walker of the Barren Plains as it revolved around a mysterious man known as the Walker who is sometimes seen out on the plains, but who is thought by many to be a ghost. As with many of my stories when I started writing I had no idea who the Walker was, what he wanted, or why he was doing what he did, but thankfully all the clues were there and by the time I got to the end he told me who he was.

Amusingly, while I was somewhat surprised by the solution to the mystery, since sending the book to the publisher this solution has cropped up several times in news reports from all around the world, so I guess it was nice to be topical for once . . .

When Marshal Rattigan Fletcher failed to stop Jasper Minx raiding the town bank, the angry townsfolk forced him to leave Ash Valley in disgrace. Rattigan went west in pursuit of Jasper, and in the inhospitable Barren Plains he got a chance to put right his mistake.

 

Rattigan is hired to find out why men from the Bleak Point silver mine have been disappearing in mysterious circumstances. As Jasper now works at the mine, Rattigan doesn't have to look far for a culprit, but Jasper claims he's not responsible. With the miners siding with Jasper, Rattigan will need to rediscover his tarnished instincts as a lawman if he is ever to solve the mystery and bring his Nemesis to justice.

Incident at Pegasus Heights to be a Black Horse Western

I'm delighted to report that Crowood have agreed to publish my western Incident at Pegasus Heights. This novel appeared earlier this year as a Kindle title, and it'll continue to be available on amazon.

It's the second novel featuring fossil-hunter Jim Dragon and it'll be my 36th Black Horse Western. I assume it'll appear some time in 2017.

The Man who Tamed Lone Pine

The Man who Tamed Lone Pine is now available. It is my 33rd Black Horse Western.

This book features the return of Nathaniel McBain and Shackleton Frost. Having given Nathaniel the job in The Secret of Devil's Canyon of escorting prisoners to jail, which at the time felt like a job with endless possibilities for plots, I found that it wasn't quite the gold mine of possibilities that I'd first thought it would be. Every story idea I came up with seemed to revolve around the prisoner claiming he's innocent and Nathaniel being concerned enough to ignore his duty and help the prisoner clear his name.

So years have passed since that story without me writing about Nathaniel again until it occurred to me that if you have a man who escorts prisoners to jail, there are two basic plots available. In one the prisoner is a victim of a miscarriage of justice and in the other he's isn't. I decided to try the second one, although, as it turned out, the matter of the prisoner's guilt was only a small part of a bigger mystery....

When Nathaniel McBain and Shackleton Frost arrive in Lone Pine to escort a prisoner to Beaver Ridge jail, they are shocked to discover it is Shackleton's old friend Sheriff Ashton Clarke. Five years ago Ashton tamed the town, but now he's been charged with killing in cold blood. 

 

Ashton claims that someone from his past has framed him, and Shackleton believes his friend. Buts as more bodies are found and with all the evidence pointing to Ashton, the case against him begins to look unbreakable. If Nathaniel and Shackleton are to solve the mystery and save their friend, they will have to turn their backs on their duty and use their trusty sixshooters instead.

Large Print version of The Devil's Marshal

The Devil's Marshal has now been published as a large print paperback. It's my 23rd Linford Western.

I must admit when I opened up the parcel and saw this book I thought the publisher had made a mistake as I didn't recognize the story described in the blurb at all. I guess I can be excused as I wrote it about four years ago, but I still found myself scratching my head until I worked out what had happened.

Linford Westerns had rewritten the blurb, which I'm not sure they've ever done before. Usually they just delete a few words to fit it on the page, but this time it's all new with little reference to the original Black Horse one. I reckon that's a good move as they seem to be putting a lot of care into their books as of late, with lively title fonts, covers that often match the story and so forth. Anyhow, here's the all new blurb:

When Lucinda Latimer is accused of murdering Archibald Harper, her bounty hunter brother Brodie is convinced of her innocence. Vowing to find the culprit, he turns up a witness in the form of drunken varmint Wilfred Clay - who, minutes after admitting to seeing the real killer, is shot to death on his own front porch. All the clues point to the murderer being Derrick Shelby - the man known as 'the devil's marshal'. The only trouble is, Derrick died a year ago ...

McBain Box Set now available on Kindle

I've bundled up three of my e-books: Death or Bounty, The Ten Per Cent Gang, and Wanted: McBain as a box set.

Up until now Wanted McBain has been available on Kindle as Cassidy Yates, Book 4, but I had a change of mind and decided to rebrand it as Book 3 of the McBain series. I think this was the right thing to do as McBain and Yates are joint main characters, but on balance McBain drives the plot more than Yates does. In addition Wanted: McBain directly follows the events in Death or Bounty and The Ten Per Cent Gang, but less so the events in the earlier Cassidy Yates books.

 

The three-book set is now available from all good amazon stores.

The Mystery of Silver Falls

 

The Mystery of Silver Falls in now available. It is my 32nd Black Horse Western.

This book continues my attempt to rectify a glaring omission in westerns, namely that too few are set underwater. I've never been sure why I like having my heroes fall into rivers or go diving into lakes, but I think I might have got it out of my system with this one that features a hero who solves his problems by going all Captain Nemo . . .

The whole town turns out to watch the first train journey when the bridge at Silver Falls is completed. The atmosphere is joyous, but the day turns sour when Kane Cresswell and his bandit gang arrive. They raid the train and, in the ensuing chaos, fifty thousand dollars fall into the river, seemingly lost forever.

Wyndham Shelford cannot get this image out of his head and is determined to find the missing money. Soon bodies start washing up in the river, and the unconventional lawman US Marshal Lloyd Drake arrives. The Marshal believes that the train raid wasn't everything it seemed, but his reckless search for the truth is endangering the lives of everyone in town. Can Wyndham find the money and put a stop to this path of violence before it's too late?

All Must Die now available

My 31st Black Horse Western has now been published.

This is the 9th novel featuring Sheriff Cassidy Yates. This time, Cassidy faces his greatest ever challenge when he dons tights and with a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no he takes on Shakespeare. Cassidy wins.

A spree of unexplained murders shocked Monotony's townsfolk, but when bank raider Sykes Caine was caught the killings stopped. Although Sykes pleaded his innocence, he got ten years. 

When Sykes is freed from jail, he returns to Monotony where Sheriff Cassidy Yates has to deal with another perplexing case. Two men are killed in what appears to be an act of revenge, but Cassidy notices similarities with the deaths ten years ago. Before long, other people are gunned down and the evidence points to Sykes again being responsible. 

With time running out before someone takes the law into their own hands and Sykes receives summary justice, Cassidy must uncover the truth and ensure only the guilty are punished.

Bullet Catch Showdown now available

My 30th Black Horse Western is now available to borrow from all good libraries.

The stage magician Malachi Muldoon is the world's most dangerous practitioner of the arcane arts with his performance of the notorious bullet catch. And his show in Bear Creek draws the interest of Adam Clements, and Deputy Hayward Knight, although for very different reasons. While Clements is keen to join Malachi on stage and become part of his act, Hayward is out to try and solve an old mystery: it seems that wherever Malachi Muldoon performs, a trail of bodies is left behind. 
Before long, Adam and Hayward are embroiled in Malachi's web of deception. Can they unmask the guilty when they are forced into a showdown with a man who hides the truth in plain sight?

The Mystery of Silver Falls

I’m pleased to report that Hale have agreed to publish my latest western The Mystery of Silver Falls.

I usually like to bang on about the inspiration for my stories, but in this case I can’t say too much. The original idea behind the story doesn’t appear until the third act where I hope it’ll be a surprise plot twist and provide a slightly different scenario for the conclusion.

What I can say is that it was one of those ideas that was off-the-wall and which clearly stood no chance of working in a western without making it into a complete fantasy yarn. Except the idea just refused to go away, and the closer I got to writing the part where I had to use the idea, or not, the more I felt that it was the only possible solution to the plot.

So I gritted my teeth, ignored the voice of doubt telling me this was a bad idea, and went for it. I hope it worked, and either way, at least I’ve got it out of my system until the next off-the-wall idea hits me.

Anyhow, the book should appear in 2015 and it’ll be my 32nd Black Horse Western.

When the bridge at Silver Falls was completed, the whole town turned out to watch the first train journey, but Kane Cresswell's bandit gang ensured that the day turned sour. Kane raided the train and in the ensuing chaos, fifty thousand dollars fell into the river, seemingly lost forever.

Wyndham Shelford was determined to find the missing money, but when bodies started washing up in the river, unconventional lawman US Marshal Lloyd Drake arrived. The marshal believed that the train raid wasn't everything it seemed, but with Drake's reckless search for the truth endangering the lives of everyone in town, can Wyndham find the money before it's too late?

Legend of the Dead Men's Gold

My 29th Black Horse Western is published today and is now available from all good libraries.

I had a lot of fun writing this one. I had always intended to write a sequel to Calloway’s Crossing, which was published in 2006. I’d enjoyed writing Trip Kincaid’s slightly outlandish adventure and I thought the character had more mileage in him, but I couldn’t come up with any ideas about what he might do next.

Eventually, as an absolute last resort, the thought came that if I had no idea what Trip did after Calloway’s Crossing, perhaps a quest to find out what Trip did next could be the plot for another Trip adventure. So I turned to Oliver Kincaid, Trip’s brother, and set him the task of finding out what happened to Trip, and in the end he got an answer.

I really like it when I start off with absolutely no idea what I’m going to write, and yet a story develops during the writing process. The title came early on, the actual legend followed shortly afterwards, and the rest of the novel progressed as an attempt to find out the truth behind the legend. I had no idea what that truth was, and so the only way to find out was to keep writing and trust that by the final chapter an answer would come. Pleasingly, as it turned out, the characters worked it out at the same time as I did by following the clues that were in the story, even though I hadn’t realized they were clues when I wrote them.

The other thing I liked about writing this story was the character of Oliver Kincaid. I like my main characters to be closer to ordinary rather than natural heroes, and Oliver is one of my least heroic heroes. He’s a short, fat, balding bartender, who has never picked up a gun in his life and is scared of his own shadow. Having such a character come up against deadly gunslingers in his quest for the truth made the story an interesting challenge.

Anyhow, the book is now out there.

Trip Kincaid had always been fascinated by the legend of the dead men's gold: it was said that the last member of the Helliton gang had cursed the stash, claiming that if he couldn't have it, nobody would.

So, with the gold still unclaimed, and the bones of a hundred men scattered around it, Trip Kincaid's disappearance is cause for alarm. His brother, Oliver, is desperate to find him and it seems the box canyon, where the Helliton gang once holed up, is the best place to start looking. But Oliver must enter the devilish outlaw stronghold and uncover for himself the truth behind the legend. Will he succeed or die in the process?

All Must Die

I’m pleased to report that I’ve received a contract for my latest Black Horse Western, entitled All Must Die.

This one is a Cassidy Yates tale. One of the side-effects of publishing my early books on Kindle was noticing that I hadn’t written about Cassidy since 2011’s Sheriff Without a Star, so I thought it was about time I found out what he’s been up to.

This was one of those stories where the title came first and in this case the working title was All Men Must Die. I had the novel finished and ready to go off to the publisher when an advert caught my eye in the corner of a webpage advertising Game of Thrones with the catchy slogan of 'All Men Must Die'. I groaned and changed the title, although perhaps in retrospect I shouldn’t have done, as I’d guess George RR Martin got that phrase from the same source I did, namely Hamlet and the phrase ‘All that lives must die’.

I’ve slipped Shakespeare into a western before, but that was in The Miracle of Santa Maria where Thaddeus T. Thackenbacker the Third, the West’s greatest living thespian, performed his cowboy version of Romeo and Juliet. I enjoyed myself writing stuff like ‘Romeo, Romeo, where in tarnation art thou?’ but I thought it was about time I made amends for that and Hamlet does have a lot of quotable lines. So I started with the intention of rewriting Hamlet as a western.

Thankfully common sense prevailed and I gave up on this self-indulgent idea very quickly, but even so I still felt an urge to get the ‘what a piece of work is man’ speech into the story. Although admittedly that probably has more to do with the fact it was used in the final scene of Lindsay Anderson’s Britannia Hospital rather than for any love of the Bard.

Anyhow, All Must Die will be my 31st BHW and it should appear around Spring 2015.

The Devil's Marshal now available

My latest western The Devil's Marshal has now been published. I had a lot of fun writing this one. It's one of those mystery tales where I had to keep writing so I could find out who done it. The original title I was using was Spectre of a Forgotten Lawman, which may or may not have been a clue as to where this one was going, but I still got to the final shoot-out before I worked it out.

As it turned out, the title was too long to fit on a Black Horse Western and so the final title is The Devil's Marshal. Anyhow, it's my 28th BHW and it's now available from all good libraries (well, the three or four left that Davy boy hasn't shut down).

In a travesty of justice, bounty hunter Brodie Latimer's sister Lucinda is found guilty of murder. Thwarted, when a witness is killed, but convinced of her innocence, he vows to find the real killer and, as more of Hamilton's leading figures die in mysterious circumstances, the clues lead him to Derrick Shelby, a man known as the Devil's marshal. 

The only trouble is, Derrick died a year ago. How can Brodie clear his sister's name and bring the guilty to justice when the killer appears to be the spectre of a long dead lawman?

The Fergal O'Brien series on Kindle

Tender Valley is a clean, friendly and law-abiding frontier town. In fact, it is such a fine town that an enterprising businessman might just designate it as the official Finest Frontier Town in the West, an award with a thousand-dollar prize.

New Utopia isn't as fine as Tender Valley, but the townsfolk there are desperate to win the award, and they're prepared to go to any lengths to succeed. So they hire gunslingers to shoot up Tender Valley and destroy that town's reputation forever.

In peaceful Tender Valley, the townsfolk are ill equipped to withstand the gunslingers' onslaught. They need a hero to ride into town, strap on a gun and stand tall before their tormentors. But the next man to ride into town is Fergal O'Brien, purveyor of a singularly unsuccessful "universal remedy." He's no hero. But for the right price - he does have a plan.

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

When tonic sellers Fergal O'Brien and Randolph McDougal decided to settle in Destiny, they reckoned the new railroad would make Destiny a boomtown, but it only brought an onslaught of surly gunslingers. While Fergal sells his tonic---a universal remedy to cure all ills---Randolph becomes sheriff of the dusty town. Throwing the ruffians in a half-built jail is his solution for dealing with a corrupt mayoral election and ten thousand dollars disappearing from the town coffers.

Her faith in the decency of the town wavering, the schoolteacher, Miss Dempsey, takes it upon herself to clean up Destiny by educating the gunslingers so that they'll learn the error of their ways! After all, she points out to one of her students, knowing how to read is important if one's own name should wind up on a wanted poster.

As Randolph wants to win Miss Dempsey's heart, he grudgingly supports her cause. But Kent Sullivan, his rival for her affections and a showman of homemade historical memorabilia, is always one step ahead of him in providing her school with just the right support. So Randolph turns to his old friend Fergal for help. Can Fergal devise another one of his legendary schemes to resolve all of Randolph's problems, or will he just get them both killed? Will decency be restored to the town of Destiny through Miss Dempsey's school, or will the roughest gunslinger of all be named mayor?

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

When the showman Fergal O'Brien and his assistant Randolph McDougal help a damsel in distress who has been attacked by the bandit Van Romalli, she repays their kindness by riding off with their display of authentic historical memorabilia.

So somehow Fergal has to find a way to earn a living, and an opportunity arrives when Jim Broughton sells him an attraction called the Treasure of Saint Woody. All is not as it seems. Jim is really a US marshal and the only person he wants him to attract is Van Romalli. Blissfully unaware he is being used as bait, Fergal is starting to rebuild his fortunes when Ezekiel T. Montgomery rides into town to promote the wondrous maiden voyage of a flying wagon.

Faced with a seemingly unbeatable competitor, Fergal tries to solve all his problems with a reckless wager, which leaves him facing his greatest ever challenge. He has twenty-four hours to learn how to fly or he'll lose everything!

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

Harlan Finchley loved reading dime novels, his favorite western hero being the fearless lawman Colt T. Blood, the marshal of the wildest frontier town of them all, Fort Arlen. So when Harlan set out to write his very own dime novel, he sought inspiration by going to Fort Arlen to see firsthand the Wild West action he'd read about. But fact and fiction prove to be very different things.

The town marshal has never met an outlaw in his life, never mind arrested one, and the sleepy town has never seen a saloon punch-up, a bank raid, or even a showdown at high noon. In fact, the town is so quiet, the only wanted poster that's displayed outside the law office shows a picture of a missing pig!

Without any exciting Wild West action to inspire him, Harlan's dream of becoming a writer seems doomed to fail. But just as he is about to give up on his quest, the snake-oil seller Fergal O'Brien rides into town on a quest of his own, and Fergal might just be the right man to make Harlan's dreams come true.

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

The Mission Santa Maria catered to Sundown's needs until bandits murdered their nuns. The young Maria is the only survivor, yet the massacre she witnessed sends her into an endless sleep. For two years she lies unconscious in the mission, gradually becoming weaker, before Bishop Finnegan notices. Unsympathetically, he decides to close the mission, which is sure to speed her demise.

With her outlook quickly becoming bleak, the devious snake-oil seller Fergal O'Brien rides into town. Although Fergal is typically interested in making a quick dollar, Maria's plight touches him. He attempts to wake her with what he claims is his universal remedy. Not surprisingly, though, his tonic fails.

An undaunted Fergal vows to help her by persuading Finnegan to keep the mission open. The bishop, however, decides that the lawless Sundown is too dangerous for a mission. The only options are to hope for a miracle or clean up Sundown with fearless gun-toting skills. Unfortunately for Fergal, though, he has never used a gun in his life.

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

All books also available in paperback.

Night of the Gunslinger

I received my complimentary copies of Night of the Gunslinger today and I like the cover. The picture is set at night and as an incident at the poker table is a crucial part of the story, it feels appropriate.

The story was an itch I had to scratch. I'd tried several times to write a story set during a single day, but every time the plot contrivances grew and I abandoned the principle. With this novel I'd originally started the story at sundown on the night before a man's trial for murder. I didn't know if he was innocent or guilty, but I hoped to find out as I went along.

As it turned out, I wrote and wrote without any sign of the trial getting started until I realized I'd written eight chapters and it was still dark. Without trying I was accidentally doing the thing I'd tried to do before of writing a story in almost real time. So I carried on and as it turned out, everything came together before sun-up letting me finally itch the itch...

It's my 27th Black Horse Western and the book is now available.

With the town marshal laid up with a broken leg, Deputy Rick Cody must stand alone to protect New Town during a night of mayhem. At sunup Edison Dent will stand trial for Ogden Reed's murder and although Rick suspects that Edison is innocent, he also reckons his own sister knows more than she's prepared to reveal.

With Rick having only one night to uncover the truth, his task is made harder when the outlaw Hedley Beecher plots to free the prisoner while Ogden's brother Logan vows to kill Edison and anyone who stands in his way.

Within an hour of sundown four men are dead. And so begins the longest and bloodiest night of Rick's life...

Cheap E-BHWs on Kindle

I see that at the moment my two BHWs that are available for download on Kindle are being sold at the bargain price of 85p on the UK site and $1.29 on the US site.

After escaping en route to their appointment with the gallows, eight condemned men led by Javier Rodriguez blazed a trail of destruction. Wherever they went, the Gallows Gang left behind swinging bodies as a reminder of the fate they had avoided.Four men set out to bring them to justice, but the prison guard Shackleton Frost and Marshal Kurt McLynn both blamed the other for the prisoners having escaped. All they could agree on is that they didn't trust Nathaniel McBain. Wrongly condemned himself, the Gallows Gang held the key to proving Nathaniel's innocence. None of them knew what demons drove the enigmatic man known only as The Preacher.Can this mismatched group put aside their personal feuds for long enough to end the Gallows Gang's reign of terror?

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

When Galen Benitez killed Mike Donohue’s wife, Mike vowed to get his revenge that very day. But it took five long years before he tracked the outlaw down to the inhospitable region known as the Cauldron. Here, Mike meets the beguiling Lucy Reynolds who is searching for the legendary lost city of Entoro, a place rumoured to have its streets paved with gold. As Mike suspects that Galen might also be searching for the treasure, he decides to help her. With Galen still at large, and now Lucy’s jealous admirer determined to kill him, Mike will need his trusty six-shooter to ensure that he isn’t the one who is dead by sundown.

Available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

The Search for the Lone Star

Today I received my complimentary copies of The Search for the Lone Star, my 24th Black Horse Western. The story is a convoluted mystery involving the search for hidden treasure in which everyone who knows where it's been buried has been killed, leaving a heap of people who all know a part of the truth fighting to get their hands on it.


Although the finished tale is my usual blend of gunfights, punch-ups and hopefully a few surprises and twists along the way, the story started life as something very different. For no particularly good reason I started writing a story told entirely in diary form. It was intended to be a sort of written version of a found footage film, even though I neither like found footage films or stories written entirely in letters, emails, etc. Sometimes it does you good to go outside your comfort zone and in this case I enjoyed trying to construct a story and a character entirely through that fictional character's writing.

The story involved a barman writing in his diary every night about his customers' antics. I reached short story length without the story going anywhere until a character in the bar told a tall tale about missing treasure. This got the barman's interest, and mine, and very quickly the story expanded into a full length novel. The first draft included the original diary entries, but on reflection I had to admit the interludes didn't work well in an action western, and I couldn't think of a good reason for eking out the diary entries throughout the book to avoid giving away the ending. Bit by bit I deleted the diary extracts until in the end they got so few they no longer had a purpose. So the published book is another one of mine where not even a single word of the story I set out to write made it into the final novel!

Anyhow, the book is now available and here's the blurb:

It had long been rumoured that the fabulous diamond known as the Lone Star had been buried somewhere near the town of Diamond Springs. Many men had died trying to claim it, but when Diamond Springs became a ghost town, the men who went there had many different aims.

Tex Callahan had been paid to complete a mission, Rafferty Horn wanted to put right a past mistake, George Milligan thought he knew what had happened to the diamond, and Elias Sutherland wanted revenge. All were united by their hatred of Creswell Washington, a man who had cast a dark shadow over all their lives during his search for the diamond. Only after violent retribution will the truth be finally revealed about the Lone Star.