
Part of Series
First in the blazing Western series featuring two reluctant heroes from the bestselling authors of the First Mountain Man and Last Gunfighter novels. In frontier literature, the name “Johnstone” means big, hard-hitting Western adventure told at a breakneck pace. Now, the bestselling authors kick off a rollicking, dramatic new series—with the first novel about a pair of not-quite-over-the-hill drifters winding their way across the American west—mostly on the right side of the law . . . but sometimes, if the situation calls for it, on the wrong side . . . Meet Scratch Morton and Bo Creel, two amiable drifters and old pals. Veterans of cowboying, cattle drives, drunken brawls, and a couple of shoot-outs, Scratch and Bo are mostly honest and don’t go looking for trouble—it’s usually there when they wake up in the morning. Now, in remote Arizona Territory, they’re caught up in a battle between two stagecoach lines. The owner of one, a beautiful widow, has gotten both Scratch and Bo hot and bothered—each trying to impress her as they fend off the opposing stage line trying to destroy her. But nothing is what it seems in this fight, and two tough sidewinders are riding straight into a trap. Praise for the novels of William W. Johnstone “[A] rousing, two-fisted saga of the growing American frontier.”— Publishers Weekly on Eyes of Eagles “There’s plenty of gunplay and fast-paced action.”— Curled Up with a Good Book on Dead Before Sundown
Author

William Wallace Johnstone was a prolific American author, mostly of western, horror and survivalist novels. Born and raised in southern Missouri, Johnstone was the youngest of four children. His father was a minister and his mother a school teacher. He quit school when he was fifteen and worked in a carnival and as a deputy sheriff. He later served in the Army and, upon returning to civilian life, worked in radio broadcasting for 16 years. Johnstone started his writing career in 1970, but did not have any works published until 1979 (The Devil's Kiss) and became a full-time writer in 1980. He wrote close to two hundred books in numerous genres, including suspense and horror. His main publication series were Mountain Man, The First Mountain Man, Ashes and Eagles and his own personal favorite novel was The Last of the Dog Team (1980). He also authored two novels under the pseudonym William Mason. Johnstone had lived for many years in Shreveport, Louisiana, yet died in Knoxville, TN, at the age of 65. J. A. Johnstone is continuing William W. Johnstone's series.