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Page Murdock, US Deputy Marshal book cover 1
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Page Murdock, US Deputy Marshal
Series · 10 books · 1979-2018

Books in series

The High Rocks book cover
#1

The High Rocks

1979

U.S. Deputy Marshal Page Murdock attempts to bring in the legendary seven-foot trapper Bear Anderson, who has been conducting a one-man massacre of the Flatheads in an effort to avenge the murder of his family. Reprint. LJ. NYT.
Stamping Ground book cover
#2

Stamping Ground

1980

Deputy U.S. Marshall Page Murdock isn't happy when Judge Blackthorne decides to send him on an assignment to north Dakota. He passed through the territory once before and is not eager to return to a land of sudden blizzards and spring floods. And to make matters worse he has been handed the nearly impossible job of apprehending the renegade Cheyenne leader Ghost Shirt, who is responsible for several massacres in the area.
Murdock's Law book cover
#3

Murdock's Law

1982

The big ranchers wanted a gunslinger marshal. The small ranchers had a hired gun. Even Murdock's deputies couldn't be trusted. But the badge on Murdock's chest meant law, and he'd enforce it the best way he knew . . . with a gun.
The Stranglers book cover
#4

The Stranglers

1985

Between your last prayer and the snap of the rope there's no time for mercy… The first victim was cut down from a limb outside Fort Benton. The second, bound and strung up in Bear's Paw. Now, Deputy Page Murdock has discovered two more men swinging from a hanging tree among the aspens along the Missouri River. They aren't drifters. They aren't bandits. They're the law. And like every man with a badge, they're wanted—by a renegade posse who live by their own cold-blooded rules. The Montana Territory is their new killing ground. And Murdock has just crossed the border.
City of Widows book cover
#5

City of Widows

1994

Page Murdock has been sent to the tough New Mexico of 1881 to track down a man and bring him to justice. But more than a trail of revenge, Murdock finds himself on a desperate odyssey. For in the Southwest a friend can turn out to be one's cruelest enemy, an enemy one's finest friend. And the woman Murdock loves will be as voluptuous as Venus and wicked as sin.
White Desert book cover
#6

White Desert

2000

This is the latest installment in a well-established Western cop series. The cop is Page Murdoch, U.S. marshal, cynic, tough-ass, and the last man you'd want on your tail. In this book Murdoch, Montana-based, pursues a vicious gang into the far north of Canada in winter—the infinity of snow he encoutners gives the title White Desert. To get his men he must outwit or outmaneuver some aggressive, unpredictable Metis; goes into a colony of American blacks escaped from slavery and still touchy; and a band of Sioux, followers of Crazy Horse fled to Grandmother's Land for safety.
Port Hazard book cover
#7

Port Hazard

2004

Hired killers, sent one by one to Montana Territory after Page Murdock. Murdock doesn't know why someone wants him out of the way, but he knows where they're coming from. Thus begins Murdock's descent into a hell more decadent, corrupt, and dangerous than even he has ever seen—-San Francisco's Barbary Coast. With an unwilling backup man, Murdock takes up temporary residence among the whores, gamblers, dope addicts, and cutthroats of the continent's foulest district. No man here is trustworthy. The enemies he's really worried about, though, are the men who run things, the politicians. Murdock's quest also takes him into Chinatown, into opium dens, and into league with a man of an alien culture who controls vices that make respectable people quail. But perhaps the men who seem respectable are the most insidious of all. Loren D. Estleman's latest tale of Page Murdock takes the deputy to the federal marshal into danger and evil appalling even for him, and delivers excitement and satisfaction as only Estleman can.
The Book of Murdock book cover
#8

The Book of Murdock

2010

Page Murdock has been many things in his day: a cowhand, a saloonkeeper, a Comanche slave, and, lately, a deputy U.S. marshal. But the one thing the mean-faced, middle-aged gunman never expected to be was a man of the cloth. Funny how things work out sometimes. Posing as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth, Murdock dons a clerical collar to worm his way into the good graces and confidences of the wary residents of Owen, Texas. Seems a gang of ruthless bandits is terrorizing the Texas panhandle, and all evidence points to the dusty cattle town as their base of operations. Murdock aims to unmask the gang, provided he can pass himself off as a preacher long enough to stay alive. Imitating a minister troubles his conscience, almost driving him to the Good Book for comfort, and his prickly assignment grows even more complicated when he crosses paths with a shady lady from his past. With one hand on the Bible and the other on his revolver, Murdock navigates shoot-outs and Sunday sermons. He might not be well-versed in the Gospels, but one thing he knows for certain: avenging angels don’t get halos. The Book of Murdock is an outstanding Western adventure by Page Murdock’s celebrated creator, Loren D. Estleman.
Cape Hell book cover
#9

Cape Hell

2016

In this thrilling new western novel by Spur Award-winning author Loren D. Estleman, U. S. Deputy Page Murdock is ordered by Federal Judge Harlan A. Blackthorne to Cape Hell, Mexico, to verify a report that former Confederate Captain Oscar Childress is raising an army to take over Mexico City—and then intends to turn north to rekindle the Civil War. Childress, it seems, has the weapons, wealth, and moral compass to do it. Unable to talk himself out of the mission, Murdock heads south on a steam train named El Espanto—The Ghost. With only Hector Cansado, an engineer who can't be trusted and Joseph, a Native American fireman with a few secrets of his own, Murdock hurtles through the murderous desert of a foreign land toward a man bent on wholesale massacre . . . unless Murdock can stop him.
Wild Justice book cover
#10

Wild Justice

2018

A riveting western novel starring beloved character Page Murdock from Spur Award-winning author Loren D. Estleman! In the spring of 1896, after thirty years spent dispensing justice in the territory of Montana, Judge Harlan Blackthorne expires, leaving Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock, his most steadfast officer, to escort his remains across the continent by rail. The long journey—interrupted from time to time by station stops for the public to pay its respects and for various marching bands to serenade the departed with his favorite ballad, "After the Ball"—gives Murdock plenty of opportunity to reflect upon the years of triumphs and tragedies he's seen first hand, always in the interest of bringing justice to a wilderness he, his fellow deputies, and the Judge played so important a role in its settlement. As the funeral train chugs through prairie, over mountains, and across rivers once ruled by buffalo herds, Indian nations, trappers, cowboys, U.S. Cavalry, entrepreneurs, and outlaws representing every level of heroism, sacrifice, ambition, and vice, Wild Justice provides a capsule history of the American frontier from its untamed beginnings to a civilization balanced on the edge of a new and unpredictable century.

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Page Murdock, US Deputy Marshal