Former Texas Rangers Benton McCaleb, Will Elliot, and Brazos Gifford ride with Charles Goodnight as he rounds up thousands of ornery, unbranded cattle for the long drive to Colorado. From the Trinity River brakes to Denver, they'll battle endless miles of flooded rivers, parched desert, and whiskey-crazed Comanches. And come face-to-face with Judge Roy Bean and legendary gunslingers like Clay Allison. For McCaleb and his hard-riding crew, the drive is a fierce struggle against the perils of an untamed land. A fight to the finish where the brave reach glory—or die hard.

PEACEMAKER AWARD WINNER When former Texas Ranger scout Pete Horse agrees to join his old friend Charlie Goodnight’s first trail drive across Texas to the New Mexico Bosque Redondo Navajo reservation, he knows the way will be fraught with danger. He expects to encounter bandits, hostile Comanche, bad weather and stampedes, and he’s not disappointed. He hadn’t been expecting the treacherous Comancheros, renegade Apache, and night riding gangs of unreconstructed Rebels seething with resentment, and all of them fighting over a thousand stolen Army rifles. When he’s forced to kill two men who are stealing his prized horse, Pete incurs the wrath of an ex-communicated religious zealot and his sect of trigger-happy disciples. The entire Texas Panhandle is about to erupt in a shooting war that could spread across the West. Riding up with old friends Bigfoot Wallace, Bass Reeves, Britt Johnson and more legendary men of the west, Pete still faces the longest odds of a long, turbulent life on the violent frontier. Praise for Beyond the Goodnight Trail “A wild and thrilling, offbeat ride through a rough Texas and New Mexico landscape . . . Bigfoot Wallace, Bass Reeves, Britt Johnson, and all the legendary characters of the West are here. This tale of adventure, bloodshed, violence, and unlikely friendships in the old West should win Gaston plenty of fans." —Booksiren rates it: Amazing “A captivating, frequently philosophical page-turner that delivers a visceral portrait of the Wild West” —Kirkus Reviews “The world building is wonderful . . . in a setting that is not just rough but lawless. Beyond the Goodnight Trail is captivating and written in elegant prose." Rating: 5 Stars Reviewed by —Ruffina Oserio for Readers' Favorite "This action-packed Western is a gift that keeps on giving...It’s been years since I read a traditional Western, and this one surpasses all expectations.” Rating: 5 Stars —Joelene Pynnonen The Independent Book Review “Very atmospheric . . . an exciting storyline about trust, honor, and valiance in this classic western. Beyond the Goodnight Trail reminds us of the adventure a good cowboy story can bring...this western novel will please readers looking for tension, adventure, and, of course, cowboys." Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars —The Book Review Directory "I would certainly recommend Beyond the Goodnight Trail to fans of classic westerns . . . plenty of action-packed events to keep you on the edge of your seat." Rating: 5 Stars —K.C. Finn Editorial Book Review for Reader’s Favorite

Range boss Tish Walker and the arrogant cowboy Luke Bonner are thrown together when a stampede mixes her prize longhorns with his herd. On the drive together, their biggest obstacle is a passion that could break--or forever bind-these two wranglers.

The courage, glory and drama of the American Western experience is at the forefront of this authentic frontier series which uses the massive longhorn cattle drives as its backdrop. After the Civil War, three out-of-work Texas Rangers join the cattle drives of Charlie Goodnight--the legendary rancher who blazed the Goodnight Trail from north Texas to Denver.

Charles Goodnight was a pioneer of the early range cattle industry—an opinionated and profane but energetic and well-liked rancher. Goodnight’s story is now re-examined by William T. Hagan in this brief, authoritative account that considers the role of ranching in general—and Goodnight in particular—in the development of the Texas Panhandle. The first major reassessment of his life in seventy years, Charles Goodnight: Father of the Texas Panhandle traces its subject’s life from hardscrabble farmer to cattle baron, giving close attention to lesser-known aspects of his last thirty years. Goodnight came up in the days when much of Texas was free range and open to occupancy by any cattleman brave enough to stake a claim. Hagan shows how Goodnight learned the cattle business and became one of the most famous ranchers of the Southwest. Hagan also presents a clearer picture than ever before of Goodnight’s business arrangements and investments, including the financial setbacks of his later life. As entertaining as it is informative, Hagan’s account takes readers back to the Palo Duro Canyon and the Staked Plains to share insights into the cattleman’s life—riding the range, fighting grass fires, driving cattle to the nearest railhead—the very stuff of cowboy legend and lore. This fascinating biography enriches our understanding of a Texas icon.

A thrilling new suspense novel from the bestselling author of The Perfect Murder that fans of Jayne Ann Krentz and Laura Griffin won’t want to miss! A cold case is heating up, and with another body turning up, one woman is hot on the trail of a killer…with the help of the rancher who hired her to deliver justice. When Kade Logan said goodbye to his estranged wife eight years ago, he never thought it would be the last time he saw her alive. Now her car has been hauled out of a nearby lake and Kade is determined to track down the man who murdered her. Enter Eleanor Bowman, a talented private investigator who’s about to stir up a hornet’s nest on his Colorado ranch. With old scandals still buzzing about his late wife’s many affairs and new violence erupting, Kade is faced with the discovery of another beautiful woman’s body. Are the two killings linked? Who is the man who seduced, then murdered both victims? Ellie believes they are dangerously close to the truth. From corporate Denver high-rises to posh Vail mansions, Kade and Ellie sense the killer is closing in again, and this time Ellie is the target. Kade must risk everything to save the woman he’s coming to love—before she becomes the next one to die . . .

Charles Goodnight was a pioneer of the early range cattle industry—an opinionated and profane but energetic and well-liked rancher. Goodnight’s story is now re-examined by William T. Hagan in this brief, authoritative account that considers the role of ranching in general—and Goodnight in particular—in the development of the Texas Panhandle. The first major reassessment of his life in seventy years, Charles Goodnight: Father of the Texas Panhandle traces its subject’s life from hardscrabble farmer to cattle baron, giving close attention to lesser-known aspects of his last thirty years. Goodnight came up in the days when much of Texas was free range and open to occupancy by any cattleman brave enough to stake a claim. Hagan shows how Goodnight learned the cattle business and became one of the most famous ranchers of the Southwest. Hagan also presents a clearer picture than ever before of Goodnight’s business arrangements and investments, including the financial setbacks of his later life. As entertaining as it is informative, Hagan’s account takes readers back to the Palo Duro Canyon and the Staked Plains to share insights into the cattleman’s life—riding the range, fighting grass fires, driving cattle to the nearest railhead—the very stuff of cowboy legend and lore. This fascinating biography enriches our understanding of a Texas icon.

In the late 1880s, the Pecos River region of Texas and southern New Mexico was known as “the cowboy’s paradise.” And the cowboys who worked in and around the river were known as “the most expert cowboys in the world.” A Cowboy of the Pecos vividly reveals tells the story of the Pecos cowboy from the first Goodnight-Loving cattle drive to the 1920s. These meticulously researched and entertaining stories offer a glimpse into a forgotten and yet mythologized era. Includes archival photographs.

This is a survey of the major historic trails of New Mexico and other parts of the American Southwest. These trails were used by Indians, prospectors, soldiers, buffalo hunters, immigrants, and cattle and sheep drovers, and, unlike other, more famous Western trails, were used as a network of two-way trade routes instead of one-way avenues for westward migration. Introductory chapters highlight prehistoric Indian trails, Spanish exploration, and Pecos as a microcosm of the old Southwest. Each subsequent chapter covers an individual trail, describing its history and some of the people who used it. A chronology of New Mexico's history and trail system is included, as are maps of the most important trails.

The Old Chisholm Trail charts the evolution of the major Texas cattle trails, explores the rise of the Chisholm Trail in legend and lore, and analyzes the role of cattle trail tourism long after the end of the trail driving era itself. The result of years of original and innovative research—often using documents and sources unavailable to previous generations of historians—Wayne Ludwig’s groundbreaking study offers a new and nuanced look at an important but short-lived era in the history of the American West. Controversy over the name and route of the Chisholm Trail has persisted since before the dust had even settled on the old cattle trails. But the popularity of late nineteenth-century Wild West shows, dime novels, and twentieth-century radio, movie, and television western drama propelled the already bygone era of the cattle trail into myth—and a lucrative one at that. Ludwig correlates the rise of automobile tourism with an explosion of interest in the Chisholm Trail. Community leaders were keenly aware of the potential economic impact if tourists were induced to visit their town rather than another, and the Chisholm Trail was often just the hook needed. Numerous “historical” markers were erected on little more than hearsay or boosterish memory, and as a result, the true history of the Chisholm Trail has been overshadowed. The Old Chisholm Trail is the first comprehensive examination of the Chisholm Trail since Wayne Gard’s 1954 classic study, The Chisholm Trail, and makes an important—and modern—contribution to the history of the American West. Winner, 2018 Elmer Kelton Book of the Year, sponsored by the Academy of Western Artists​