Max McCoy, the Spur Award-winning author of Damnation Road, continues his American Western saga of the Ghost Rifle as the violence and bloodshed the weapon has caused return to haunt the man who created it …

THE WEAPON AND THE WILDERNESS
Ten years have passed since Jack Picaro lost his Ghost Rifle–the firearm he invented, the one that never missed its target. The loss of the rifle calmed the hellraiser in his soul. Instead of returning to the gambling halls and whiskey bars
of St. Louis, Jack has spent the last decade as a fur trapper in Wyoming’s Wild River Range, married to Sky, the daughter of an Arikara war chief.

Then, after helping rescue U.S. soldiers captured by Crow Indians in the Rocky Mountains, Jack hears the familiar bell-like report of his Ghost Rifle. Determined to retrieve his deadly property, he travels deep into Lakota territory, facing down
old enemies–and resuming old sinful habits–unaware of what awaits him when he eventually returns home to his family.

In Canyon Diablo by Spur Award winner Max McCoy, two brothers agree to settle their simmering feud at an old desert mission. But then they find a pile of dead bodies there-and one mortally wounded survivor who promises them riches beyond their dreams if they return his prized possessions to Canyon Diablo. “Max McCoy is a masterful storyteller and Canyon Diablo adds to that reputation. A force of fascinating characters and unexpected plot twists creates a can’t-put-it-down story.”-Cotton Smith, best-selling Western author of Spirit Rider

It’s the last chance for Jacob Gamble, Rough Rider, outlaw and man of a few principles. Nearing 50 and flat broke, Jacob bends his own rule about robbing trains. But by the time he reaches the payroll safe on a Rock Island train, he finds another thief there first with a bullet in his head. Jacob is caught holding the bag – and turned into hero. A broke hero. Shackled by unwanted fame, running from a life gone wrong, and raising the suspicions of a Pinkerton detective, Jacob listens to a woman: beautiful and tattooed by the Indians who seized her as a child. Olivia Weathers knows of a treasure hidden in a cave along the Jornada del Muerto – a merciless hundred mile stretch of hell on earth guarded by Apache warriors. Now, Jacob will follow Olivia into the most savage and deadly territory in the southwest – where few ever come out of Canyon Diablo alive.

Three-time Spur Award winner Max McCoy combines fast-paced action, frontier history, and powerful family drama in this epic saga of life, love, and death in the American west.

SEARCHING FOR A GHOST, A LEGEND, AND A DREAM …

Descended from a long line of ramblers and rogues, Jack Picaro came to America to seek his fortune. But after killing his best friend in a drunken duel, the apprentice gunsmith flees westward, leaving behind children he does not know, Gus and April. As Jack ventures up the Missouri River, he finds an unspoiled land where a man can live free–and also be attacked by an Arikara war party. His rifle stolen in the bloody skirmish, Jack sets out alone to reclaim it. His wild escapade ends in a fight to the death with a legendary Crow warrior named Standing Wolf. So begins a fateful epic search across the last frontiers of the untamed West. From the muddy banks of the Mississippi to the shining peaks of the Rockies, Jack Picaro will leave a trail of clues for an abandoned son, Gus, to find him: a famous gunsmith who will make history with a weapon of his own design–and forged a legend that would be passed down for generations. This is the story of …

THE GHOST RIFLE

MaxMcCoy has made a name for himself among fans of Old West tales by penning novels that sizzle with the heat of flying lead and lightning-fast gunslingers. Hellfire Canyon features Alf Brolin, a tall drink of water who guns down innocent victims with the same carelessness with which he quotes classic literature. Federal trooper Zach Thomas, however, lacks any appreciation for Brolin’s airs and means to see the outlaw put six feet in the ground.