Bøger i Jake Paynter serien

An action-packed historical western for fans of William Johnstone and Louis L'Amour. Condemned to die, he's about to find a reason to live. Jake Paynter is a doomed man. Haunted by an abusive childhood and his participation in atrocities of the Civil War, he seeks the isolation of the Plains Cavalry as a white officer for an all-Black buffalo soldier troop. Now, he is in irons and certain to be hanged for killing his captain after refusing an inhumane order. Despite his best efforts to maintain isolation, he starts to make friends on his journey to trial. The people of the wagon train begin looking to Paynter for leadership, and he reluctantly falls into the role. The opportunity to escape arises when the wagon train is attacked by bandits, but Paynter's growing ties to the travelers compel him to stay. As his trial approaches, Paynter must lean on his friends for salvation, but the laws of the west are swift and harsh, and a grueling confrontation with his past is on the horizon.

"Jake Paynter cheated death, but now there's hell to pay. After escaping the hangman's noose, Jake is now forced to lie low while every lawman, bounty hunter, and desperado west of the Mississippi guns for his head. When he receives word that miners at South Pass City are getting brutally murdered, he fears for his immigrant friends from the Oregon Trail. Against his better judgment, Paynter travels to the mining fields to bring the culprit to justice. Hiding in an abandoned mine by day and sleuthing at night, Jake begins to unravel the mystery of the deaths, drawing the hushed admiration of frightened families who begin looking to him for salvation. However, he faces more than a mysterious killer. His nemesis, Lucien Ashley, has hired a Pinkerton detective and a cutthroat gang from Philadelphia to capture or kill him. As adversarial forces close in, Jake must decide what he is willing to sacrifice. To run might preserve his life. To stay and fight for his friends might save his soul. For what a man fights for spells the difference between honor and dishonor, between duty and disgrace, between valor and simple violence."--

Fans of William Johnstone and Ralph Compton will love this action-packed historical western featuring a lone gunman and the people he's tasked with protecting.Jake Paynter escaped the noose, but the price of salvation is pain.Since reluctantly accepting the marshal's job at South Pass City, Jake's life has become an unending run of solving other people's problems. When outlaw boss Dutch van Zandt and his ruthless band mount a campaign of mayhem in Jake's corner of the Wyoming Territory, Jake learns that Lucien Ashley, his persistent adversary, may be aiding the criminals to expand his burgeoning cattle fortune. The fact that Lucien is the brother of Rosalyn, a woman Jake admires, complicates matters.Determined to thwart van Zandt and Lucien, Jake recruits a posse of old friends and former platoon-mates that puts the outlaw gang on the run. When Lucien betrays van Zandt, the outlaw leader loots Jake's town and takes captive Rosalyn and four children. With friends few and enemies in abundance, Jake must thread a harrowing needle to run down van Zandt in the rugged Wyoming wilderness and save Rosalyn and the children without ending up in a shallow grave.