Part of Series
USA Today bestselling Smoke Jensen has taken on plenty of outlaws—but this time, it's personal . . . Big Max Higgins ran the outlaw town of Hell's Creek up in the north Montana Rockies—and then he decided to include the nearby town of Barlow in his cutthroat operation. What he didn't know was that Smoke Jensen was there with his wife, visiting relatives. It didn't take Smoke long to rout out the lot of them with angry fists and blazing guns . . . but Smoke didn't count on Big Max doing something as daring, desperate, and stupid as kidnapping his wife—and demanding the town of Barlow itself as ransom. Soon Big Max Higgins would look up and see the last mountain man riding down the middle of the street with reins in his teeth and both hands filled with .44s. Big Max had always wanted to make a name for himself. And he was going to get it, too—carved on his gravestone.
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.
