Rough Justice: A Western Story is a book by Lauran Paine. Dale McAfee is foreman of John Rockland’s Texas Star Ranch. While drinking at the Union Eagle Saloon in Perdition Wells, Texas, McAfee gets into a scuffle with a free-graze cowman named Clell Durham. McAfee pulls his gun and kills Durham, but the bullet goes through Durham and kills an aged swamp man who had been sweeping the floor of the saloon. All the witnesses say that the old man ignored the warnings and continued sweeping, so Sheriff Doyle Bannion rules the death an involuntary shooting death by misadventure. Two months later, four men ride into town and demand that Bannion tell them the name of the man who killed their father. It turns out that the old swamp man, their father, was none other than Colonel Alpheus King, who had been the leader of a guerilla group known as King’s Confederate Raiders during the Civil War. The old man still had a price on his head, so he had sought refuge and an anonymous life in Perdition Wells. Sheriff Bannion knows that he cannot reveal McAfee’s name to the King brothers, but they are determined to discover their father’s killer one way or another.

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The Brass Man is a western novel by Max Brand. Lew Weldon has spent his life going wherever the wind blows him. He’s been up to Canada and down to Mexico and along the way has earned himself a reputation as a gambler and gunfighter. It seems that this reputation has preceded him to the town of San Trinidad and has earned him two job offers. Roger Cunningham asks Lew to sign onto his smuggling operation, while Dr. Henry Watts has asked Lew to act as bodyguard for his patient, the beautiful Helen O’Mallock, who is dying of consumption. Lew finds the second offer much more appealing and he agrees to help Helen even though he knows Cunningham is a man who doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. It seems that Helen’s father, the late General O’Mallock, had hidden a fortune in the house before his death. Twice already, Helen’s house has been broken into and an attempt to poison her has been made. Dr. Watts tells Lew that he believes the thieves want Helen frightened out of her house so that they may look for the treasure at their leisure. After investigating the O’Mallock house one night, Lew realizes he may be up against impossible odds and he realizes that no one is to be trusted.

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Redemption: Trackdown is a novel by James Reasoner. Marshal Bill Harvey has his hands full as the lawman for Redemption, Kansas. When hotheaded Texan Jesse Overstreet stumbles into town, he just adds to Bill’s headache. Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Caleb Tatum and his gang show up like a whirlwind and take every penny folks have made and take off with a hostage in tow—Bill’s wife, Eden. Bill has to leave the curmudgeon Mordecai to police the town while he and his posse ride hard to save Eden and the townspeople’s money. Mordecai has to deal with domestic violence and a suspicious gypsy and longs for Bill to return. After the posse gets unexpected help from Overstreet, Bill may get to return home sooner than he thought.

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A Bullet for Billy the Kid is a trio of western stories by Will Henry. In “The Fourth Horseman,” Frank Rachel ventures down the Mogollon Rim into Peaceful Basin. Tired of fighting the range wars, Frank just wants a place where he can start the ranch he’s always dreamed of and to live a life free of guns and bloodshed. Libby Fewkes and Garth Graden change his plans. In “Santa Fe Passage,” Kirby Randolph is a mountain man who has come to St. Louis to look for a wife. After an encounter with the wild and beautiful Aurelie St. Vrain, Kirby thinks he has found his future wife. Aurelie is the mixed-blood daughter of a trader, but before Kirby can get to know her better, her father decides to send her to Santa Fe to live with his brother’s family because of her antics. Kirby decides to hire on as scout for the wagon train even though he has never done it before. How hard could it be? He just wants to get to know Aurelie better. Finally, “A Bullet for Billy the Kid,” focuses on the life of the infamous Bill Bonney from his birth in the slums of New York to his outlaw days in the Arizona and New Mexico territories.

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The Trail Beyond is a western story by Max Brand. Peter Quince has been a fighter since he was born. Orphaned at a young age, he remembers an old woman telling him that he was a bad one and would cause a lot of trouble in the world. Others claimed that he had bad blood and, sooner or later, it would show up. Bill Andrews, however, felt a connection to the boy and brought him home to raise as his own despite his wife’s reservations. Peter soon learned to manipulate people by withholding his true feelings—showing and telling others only what they wanted to see and hear. He learned that cunning and strength were the way to win battles, with cunning being the more important of the two. When he beats his foster brother in a fight over a girl, Peter decides it is time to strike out on his own. He decides that in his travels he will seek out those with skills he needs and learn from them until he is able to best the teacher. Barely twenty years old and Peter has a price on his head for killing a man in self-defense. As he outsmarts lawmen in five