When Jack McKenna, also known as ‘Texas Jack’, and Tommy Vee were given the assignment by the people of Filo, Texas to go to Cedar Gulch and escort the town’s new schoolteacher back, it seemed to be a simple task. Since there was no stagecoach or train service between Cedar Gulch and Filo, it would be a one week trip each way. All they needed to do was ride to Cedar Gulch and return with the new schoolteacher.
The American cowboy is an icon recognized worldwide. Cowboys represented courage, independence, self-reliance and the freedom of the new frontier. Western stories of the old wild west are a classic staple but if you believe there are no longer cowboys around, you’d be wrong. Cowboys are still very much a part of the American landscape and living the cowboy code is still their way of life.
When an Islamic terrorist known only by the name Allah’s Scorpion is hired by a radical Muslim sect to attack the United States with a weapon of mass destruction, the plan is only partially completed. Allah’s Scorpion escapes with a few men from the terrorist cell who are helping him. They flee to a place away from a major city where they believe the authorities will be looking for them and go to Montana.
Ralph Glidden (1881-1968) was a self-proclaimed, self-taught archeologist who lived on Catalina Island from the age of fifteen. He was primarily viewed as a charlatan, self-promoter, and grave robber but he did discover over 800 grave sites and 4000 skeletons on Catalina Island. He was the curator of a morbidly bizarre museum where he displayed the bones taken from the graves. Shelves held up with thigh bones displayed sculls among a variety of other artifacts. Towards the end of his life, he claimed to have uncovered the secret history of Catalina’s past, a race of ‘White Indians’ and a race of giants that inhabited the island. He related a tale of finding the grave of a ‘Royal Princess’ buried in a ceremonial 138-pound urn with a group of sixty-four children buried with her and at the bottom of the grave, the skeleton of a seven-foot, eight-inch giant. Mainstream scientists rebuffed him and his findings, thoroughly discrediting him. His claim was never validated and his collection of skeletons, reportedly sent to several museums, has never been seen again.
Just released in time for Halloween, ‘The Quick, The Dead and the Undead’, a western horror anthology. I was honored to be included with some of the best and most successful western authors of our day on this collaborative project. The book is currently available in the KINDLE format and will soon be released as a paperback on AMAZON BOOKS.
The Quick, the Dead, and the Undead, Kindle Edition
Grady Jones life was hard as a child, and it didn’t get better with age. His father died when he was young and a few years later his mother was killed in a senseless shooting. He was on his own until the Reverend Barnaby took him in. Tensions were high in that period just before the Civil War and they lived in Ohio at that time, a border state. The Reverend was anti-slavery and a staunch abolitionist who worked with the underground railroad helping slaves flee to freedom.
San Francisco… 1935. During the depression San Francisco was not much different then most other cities in the United States. The economy was depressed and there were men out of work. The Golden Gate and Bay Bridge projects were underway which helped a bit, and the port provided some jobs, but not enough to go around.
Fort Smith, Arkansas sat on the border of Indian Territory in 1875. It was a rowdy place filled with brothels, saloons, and outlaws. It was said that there was ‘no law west of Arkansas’ and not much in Fort Smith. That changed when Judge Isaac Parker was appointed to the bench. Known as ‘the hanging judge’, Judge Parker was stern and unbending in his application of the law… his court often referred to as the ‘court of the damned’. The jail at Fort Smith where outlaws were held awaiting trial wasn’t a pleasant place to be and was considered to be ‘hell on the border’.
The Kansas/Missouri border was a dangerous place during the Civil War and in the years that followed. Kansas entered the Union as an anti-slavery State only months before the war started and was bordered by the Pro-slavery State of Missouri. ‘Border Ruffians’ like William Quantrill fought for the Confederacy while ‘Free Staters’ and ‘Jayhawkers’ fought for the Union. They were all guerrilla fighters led by men of often questionable morality. There was only some measure of legitimacy given to them by the Confederate and Union governments respectively because they claimed they were fighting for the same cause. The results on both sides was the same… people killed while towns were sacked and burned.
The Ranger is the prequel to the novel Texas Jack!
This brand new adventure follows the story of a young man named Britt Logan who is a member of a wagon train on the way to Oregon in 1852. He and his parents are among just a few non-Mormons in a Mormon wagon train heading to the Salt Lake Valley. Their plan was to leave the train at the South Pass and head to Oregon with another train, but when Britt’s parents are killed by an influential member of the church, Britt finds himself on the run.
Texas Jack: The Bank Robbers: A Novel of the Old West (A Texas Jack Western) Paperback – August 13, 2020
The fast-paced, action-packed third Western adventure in the new “Texas Jack Western” series from Mark Marchetti!
Phineas Todd was a strange little man. He arrived in Filo, Texas many years before the Civil War and was a familiar fixture in Filo since he was the president of the only bank in town. Even when he was young, for some reason he just seemed to be older than his years. He was known in town simply as ‘Old Finny’ and was loved by the townspeople, in spite of his quirky ways.
For many of the town’s people and ranchers in the area, it was ‘Old Finny’ who had helped them navigate the hard times during the war and after. He was the wealthiest man in town yet lived like a pauper, his only interest being the welfare of the town. Receiving the love and respect of the town’s people was the only thing he believed was of value. Unknown to the town’s people was the secret of his past in the days before he came to Filo.
When four bank robbers arrive in town, led by the notorious gunman Russell Blye, the world of ‘Old Finny’ and the town gets turned upside down. The former Sheriff, Tommy Vee, comes out of retirement and recruits ‘Texas Jack’ McKenna to track down the robbers and bring them to justice.
As a longtime friend of ‘Old Finny’, Jack knows his secret… and doesn’t want it revealed. As they set out to hunt down the outlaws, Jack and Sheriff Vee discover they each have a different vision of how justice should be served… the legal way and the ‘Texas Jack’ way.
