Teasers for the Novels:
The Assassin Hunters
A Kung-Fu disciple in Shanghai, China and a US Marshal in California would seem to have nothing in common. And yet, a plot to destroy California brings them to together amidst murder and political duplicity going to the highest level.
In China, it begins with Fang Lu, young Kung-Fu student, abandoned by his British father when his Chinese mother dies. He observes talk of a secret mission between Chinese rebels and a British admiral bargaining to trade guns for assassins to California to kill prominent political leaders.
Meanwhile in California, Matt Janzene, US Marshal, puzzles over the murder of two people in a hotel room in Monterey. Unfortunately, one of the bodies seems to have gotten up and walked away.
Sent to California to stop the assassins, Fang Lu soon meets Matt Janzene and together they follow a trail that leads across California to the Mormon community of San Bernardino in Southern California.
Can these two men foil the assassin plot set in motion to make California British? Will they discover the missing body and solve the murder? Can they save the political future of California?
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377 pages, Trade paperback
Trouble was colored on the Gila Trail to the California gold fields in 1849. Dark-skinned Mexicans were afraid of the Apaches. The Blacks, both free and runaway, distrusted and feared the whites. Many white Anglos hated the Blacks, the Mexicans, and the Indians.
The good and bad of every color traveled along the Gila River Trail. Jackson Gilbert, part Creek Indian, part Black, part Mexican found himself in the middle.
But the gold was across the harsh, unforgiving Indian and Mexican desert territory.
As Jackson Gilbert left San Antonio, Texas, he ran into an outlaw gang of mean Missourians who beat up Mormons and Blacks, stole from Mexicans for fun, and killed whenever it suited their plans.
Jackson Gilbert had anticipated a quiet visit with his father, followed by a long, but uneventful ride across the desert to El Paso to meet his Texas Ranger friend, Matt Janzene.
Instead, he was forced to chase the outlaws across the desert to El Paso and beyond, following a trail of death, mayhem and robbery.
Once in California, Jackson and Matt discovered a dark and violent threat to the constitutional convention and its delegates.
The plot was to overthrow American rule in the newly acquired territory as rebel Anglos, angry Mexicans, and betrayed exiles from Baja California attempted to form an independent country. With fists flying and Colts blazing, Matt Janzene discovers the plot and unmasks its leader. The action starts the minute he steps off the steamer in Monterey, and doesn’t stop until final showdowns at the strange rock formations called the Devil’s Horns and the old Presidio church in Monterey.
191 pages—Trade Paperback
Cliff Stone had learned early in his life that he had a gift with weapons, but little patience. He came to California in search of an uncle he had never met and rode into the middle of a vicious blood feud. His uncle, Henry Halleck, was head of the New Almaden quicksilver mine and a very important man in 1853 San Francisco politics.
But Halleck had an enemy he did not remember from the past, an enemy who would refresh Halleck’s memory with the business end of a six-gun.
Cliff Stone joins up with his uncle and nearly gets himself killed when the gang beats him up, shoots him and leaves him for dead at the bottom of a quicksilver mine shaft...
READER COMMENTS:
“This is a fine novel. I really enjoyed reading it.”
—Kitty Monahan, Director, New Almaden Quicksilver Museum
“This is a great story.”
—Larry Comstock, San Jose author of “Henry Halleck and the Almaden Quicksilver Mines.”
227 pages Trade paperback
All kinds of men showed up in the gold fields of California in the early 1850’s; some good, some bad, some worse.
The worst type, Australian convicts from San Francisco called Sydney Ducks, arrived in Mariposa, a new town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, bringing their particular kind of brutality and villainy.
To add to the gold miners’ distress, the California bandit, Joaquin Murrieta had begun attacking anyone with a white skin.
From Monterey, U.S. Marshal Matt Janzene rode to stop the trouble.
Once in Mariposa, he discovered that his sister Susan was in the middle of the violence with vital information he needed. Before they could meet, her cabin exploded with her inside.
Soon afterwards, Janzene received a mysterious note indicating that she was still alive, but in bad trouble.
Could she have survived the explosion?
Could she still help him? Did the Sydney Ducks want her dead?
Janzene went to find Susan, but is ambushed by the Sydney Ducks and his body is swept away down Mariposa Creek by its swift springtime currents.
But the Sydney Ducks underestimated Matt Janzene. He is too tough to kill and too dangerous to mess with. They soon find out why.
303 pages—Trade Paperback
Flame erupted from the barrel of Bob Alcott’s revolving Colt shotgun and the outlaws on the trail in front of him scattered. He watched blood spread in a circle around the body on the ground as the outlaw died.
Death and Bob Alcott were old friends.
Alcott had it all. He had struck it rich in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California in the gold rush of 1849. Then he had met the girl of his dreams.
Unfortunately, the girl already had a husband and Alcott discovered he was dying of consumption.
Taking his Colt revolving shotgun, he rode south into the Santa Lucia Mountains. There he met a stranger with secrets that would change every aspect of his life.
227 pages—Trade Paperback
It all began with the mysterious moccasin print in the hot sand of the Great California Desert...
One moment Jackson was a successful stock breeder with a thriving business, a good partner and a pretty wife.
The next moment, his life exploded around him.
His Colt pistols and silver Creek tomahawk could not save him from the vengeance of the Cavanah gang and a secret he had kept for years.
Only the friendship and the Colts of U.S. Marshall Matt Janzene could save him...
375 pages—Trade Paperback
As the assassin’s hand arched for his throw, Janzene cocked and fired his Colt in a smooth, practiced motion. Silver whirling objects spun from the man’s hand, shooting through the air toward Janzene. At the some time, the assassin’s body was hurled backward by the force of Janzene’s bullet. The man staggered and fell, dead as he hit the wooden floor.
Janzene threw off his blanket and leaped to his feet, reaching the body shortly after it fell. A pool of blood was forming on the man’s garment.
Janzene looked at his assailant. Of all the people to attack him, he had expected least of all a Chinaman.
Why had his recent visit to the Chinese area in Monterey aroused such a desire to kill him?
What did the Chinese scroll he possessed contain?
He shook his head.
What had he gotten himself into?
271 pages—Trade Paperback
Charlie Buck looked through the trees at the four men spread around the dying campfire. Between the glowing coals and the cold light of the full moon, he could see three of them lying on the ground, asleep. The forth, a rifle propped over his shoulder and blanket wrapped around his shoulders was supposed to be a sentinel, but he was asleep too. Why not? They probably figured they had sent Georgie Washington, alias Doctor Yah Yah, ex-Voodoo Doctor, half way to Mexico. They must have figured they had scared away anyone who could be dangerous.
Buck felt the cool metal of the Colt’s trigger beneath his finger. He had no problem with shooting men who had shot at him, but it was easy to kill—what he needed was information.
The third murder in the St. Louis Cathedral had brought Charlie Buck back to New Orleans from the Mexican War, because it was his father who had been killed. His good-for-nothing brothers were no help, nor was the corrupt policeman he had known ten years ago before he left.
He would have to find the murderer himself. When all evidence pointed to the Bishop of New Orleans, he couldn’t accept it.
Then the trail led him into the bayou, the cypress swamp of Louisiana, with a Voodoo Doctor.