Dusty Richards

"To read a Dusty Richards novel is to journey back into the Old West with a writer who knows the territory." --Jory Sherman

The Land Made Him Hard

The Byrnes family came to Texas and carved out a place on the land. Three generations who paid in blood and treasure. Children carried off by Comanche. A brother lost to war. Lives shattered. Chet Byrnes was trying to hold the ranch together through one more winter for one

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"Chet Byrnes has built a ranching empire from the ground up. And he's defended it with his sweat, blood and a ragtag band of ranch-hand fighters. Now a beautiful young Spanish widow comes into Chet's life, just as he starts off in search of a lost cattle drive that heads straight into the eye of a sprawling, violent storm. Chet, and his men--and his seductive new woman--end up on a wild ride through Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas, where authorities...

"Chet Byrnes has his hands full taking care of his family and running his ranching operation in Arizona Territory. But he still takes his responsibilities as a deputy U.S. marshal very seriously. Bandits have been crossing the border, cutting a bloody swath of mayhem--stealing horses, robbing banks, and murdering innocent folk--then high-tailing it back to safety in Mexico. The chief U.S. marshal asks Chet to lead a secret task force to stop the raids...

A landmark feat of innovation is about to change the American West forever. With electric cables stretching from the Colorado River to Gallup, New Mexico, a new telegraph system will connect the settlers of the Arizona Territory to the rest of the country--a dream come true for rancher Chet Byrnes and his family. But laying four hundred miles of steel wire can be a deadly task. Chet has to face off with hired henchmen who would kill to sabotage the...

U.S. Marshal Chet Byrnes is turning the savage and lawless Arizona desert into a homeland, spearheading a stage line from Gallup to the Colorado River. It will lay out the territory for new settlements, and, be a boon to Navajo trading posts. Unfortunately, it's not Gerald Hall's idea of progress. The mysterious Texas gambler has hired three--and counting--kill-crazy assassins to bury Chet under a storm of bullets. To turn the tables on him, Chet...

"For Chet Byrnes, building a ranching empire means adding new land, hiring good men, finding water and trying new breeds of cattle. But outlaws and Tuscon's idle rich want to take it all away--and Arizona just may be too lawless to stop it. So while the Byrnes family expands its reach, Chet must do his job hunting down outlaws on either side of the border. Chet's cowboys prove to be tireless fighters, going up against former Mexican military men,...

"In the brutal, unforgiving wastes of the Arizona desert, Chet Byrnes built a cattle ranching empire with his bare hands, steel will, and a fast draw. As the U.S. marshal, he risks his life to bring law to a lawless land. When a new railroad route is planned to pass through Navajo territory, Chet fights to get the Indians a contract to supply the locomotives with coal. But the corrupt politicians in Tucson and D.C. have other ideas. The coal contract...

Herschel Baker left his life as a rancher to become the first sheriff of Horse Creek, Montana. Only weeks into the job, he's about to find out what it means to bring the law to a lawless land.

It's up to Hershel to stop all forms of criminality—including the old vigilante justice that once ran the town. When the cowboy Billy Hanks is found hanging from a tree with the label Hoss Steeler pinned to his chest, the culprits must...

"During the Civil War, Texas Rangers Harp and Long John O'Malley patrol a vast, unguarded range, protecting the families of soldiers off fighting at the front. At war's end, the Rangers are disbanded, and the O'Malleys sign on with a cattle drive across the most treacherous and deadly stretch of the American frontier from Texas to Sedalia" --

"Whip Station, a critical stop on the Butterfield stagecoach line, is dead smack in the middle of no-man's land. The lawless call it an easy target. Joe O'Malley calls it home. If anybody can tame a wild, violent territory, it's the seasoned frontiersman. So can his family, who have the same pride and honor coursing through their veins. Helping to plant roots is his son Jackson, a former wrangler married to a steadying force of nature. Joe's grandchildren...