The Marshal's Gambit

Payne Conway didn’t plan on staying in Arizona – until the outlaws start falling to his .44.

After signing on as town marshal in Sentinel, Payne crosses paths with ruthless businessman Sam Horton.

Sam thinks that the desolate railroad town is the perfect place to build a gambling house and brothel, but Payne doesn’t want to watch his community turn into a hotbed of vice and murder.

When Payne tosses one of Sam’s closest allies in jail, he quickly becomes the target of the Hand Gang, Sam’s desperado footmen, for daring to stand in the way of Sam’s sinister ambitions.

It seems to Payne that he’s the only person trying to bring Sam Horton to his knees – until he meets Clementine Boyd.

Clementine had been Sam’s trusted household staff until her sister goes missing under suspicious circumstances. Suspecting it all to be part of her boss’s dire game, the trail leads her to Sentinel.

Together, Payne and Clementine form a lonely stand at the edge of Sam’s desert compound. But it’s two against a hive of cutthroats, none of whom are ready to give up their outlaw’s paradise carved by Sam Horton.

Outnumbered and outgunned, can Payne and Clementine raze Sam’s empire of cruelty and recover her sister from the dust?
Or will they be scattered by pistol-fire into the lonely desert wind?

Another classic western with respectful romance and women as strong frontier folk from author William Black.

Each book in the American Post-Civil War Westerns series is a standalone story that can be read out of order.