A Copper Grave

A Copper Grave

A Mark Hayes Story #3

by

Brent Towns 

Get your copy here! 

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR MARK HAYES IS BACK—AND HOPETOWN WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

New town. New criminals. Same danger.

After Police Sergeant Nicole Berger’s transfer, Mark Hayes lands in Hopetown—a place where “hope” is in short supply. Within days, he’s neck-deep in trouble: illegal dogfights, an ICE epidemic, a missing woman, and the chilling echoes of a thirty-year-old murder.

When the old case stirs up new enemies, Mark quickly learns that in Hopetown, the past doesn’t stay buried—and neither might he.

Every suspect has something to hide. Every lead could be a trap. And if Mark doesn’t unravel the truth fast, the next body in the ground could be his own.

Preview:

  Thirty Years Ago…

Les Jones eased his horse to a halt and surveyed the table-flat land stretching out before him. It wasn’t just a cursory glance, but one of love. This was the driest, harshest, toughest piece of dirt he had ever seen, but he’d managed to eke a living out of it, which made it even more special. Apart from his family and rodeo riding, this wasteland was the biggest passion of his life.

It was, however, in desperate need of rain, two years passing since the last great downpour. But once it came, the transformation would be unbelievable. No one, not anyone, would take it away from him.

Les turned in the saddle as he heard the bleating of sheep off to his right. There was a line of them coming toward him. To the south, the crackle of thunder signaled the passage of a distant storm. The sky was dark, and he could see the heavy curtain of rain sweeping across the land, punctuated by jagged forks of lightning. If only it would come further north to fill his dams.

That’s what Les was doing—checking dams. Some were getting too low, like the feed in the paddocks, which meant he would have to move stock around. Maybe in another week or two, before he went to Queensland for a stint on the rodeo circuit. 

Another rumble of thunder, this one a lot closer than the others. Les’s horse shifted nervously beneath him. Reaching down, he patted its neck reassuringly, soothing the animal with his voice. “Easy, boy. It’s just the big fella shifting some furniture around.”

Les looked up and saw the ominous clouds roiling above him. He frowned. The storm couldn’t have moved that quickly. He looked back to the south and saw the storm still tracking on its original path. No, there was one forming over him.

“Looks like we’re going to get some rain after all, boy,” he said in a low voice. “Time to go.”

Using just the pressure of his knees, the bay started to walk forward. 

Suddenly, a jagged fork of lightning dropped from the gray clouds like the fist of God, striking the only tree for miles. The tree sparked and seemed to explode. The sound of the thunder was deafening, and this time the horse lurched wildly beneath him. It took several minutes and all of Les’s skills to bring him back under control. 

“Easy now,” he murmured.

The first drop of rain landed heavily on his shirt, leaving a circular outline of moisture. It was soon followed by another, and another, until the landscape was covered with the wet gray curtain of the sudden squall. 

Les urged his mount on. Being caught out in the open with lightning all around wasn’t a place he was eager to be. Another lightning bolt crashed earthward, followed by the deep boom of thunder. 

There was a lean-to he’d built for the sheep beside the next dam. It was scant cover, but shelter was shelter. He’d head there. 

For the next ten minutes, Les rode through the unabating storm. If anything, it had intensified. The bolt of lightning had now turned into a sheet, and the sky illuminated constantly with bright flashes.

The horse slopped through hoof-deep water as the hard-baked earth refused to let the water penetrate it. Then, ahead of him, Les saw something. The horse stopped. Les peered into the gloom and saw the movement again. It looked to be another rider. Out here? Who’d be this far afield on his property? 

Les removed his Akubra so that he wouldn’t have to look through the water cascading off its brim. He narrowed his eyes and caught sight of the rider again. “Bloody hell,” he muttered.

Then, replacing his hat, Les urged his horse forward once more, determined to find out who the rider was and what they were doing on his land.

 

Peter Bentley #5

 Command

by

J.E. MacDonnell

A Peter Bentley Story

In recognition of his bravery in piloting a midget submarine into a harbour thick with the Japanese, and sending one of the Japs’ largest battleships to the bottom of the sea, Peter Bentley was given command of H M A S Wind Rode. It should have been a proud moment for the young lieutenant-commander … but Wind Rode was a sorry-looking destroyer. Everything about her had been allowed to slide.

Peter had his work cut out for him, bringing her up to the standards he’d grown used to aboard his old ship, the Scimitar. And it was a job he couldn’t do alone.

His old commander, Bruce Sainsbury V.C., recognized this and acted at once. He sent Bentley a new Number One, Bob Randall. And of course the one and only Hooky Walker as his buffer. With their support, Bentley was going to bring Wind Rode up to scratch, or the merciless enemy was going to send them down to Davy Jones’ locker …

I worked my way through a stack of these naval novels years ago, and among the many characters, Peter Bentley and John “Dutchy” Holland stood out as my favourites. This particular book, however, focuses squarely on Bentley as he assumes command of H.M.A. Destroyer Wind Rode.

On arrival, Bentley finds the ship’s crew unruly and undisciplined, presenting him with challenges from the very start. But things begin to turn around with the appointment of a new first lieutenant and a new Buffer—both men Bentley knows well, and both perfectly suited to restore order and efficiency.

J.E. MacDonnell delivers another stirring sea-faring tale, one that proves enjoyable throughout. While the first two-thirds concentrate on Bentley’s struggle to whip the ship into shape, the pace quickens later, bringing plenty of action and excitement. It may not rank as the finest MacDonnell I’ve read, but it remains a thoroughly satisfying adventure.

Bannerman The Enforcer #41

 The Buckskinners

by 

Kirk Hamilton

(Keith Hetherington)

Bannerman The Enforcer #41

They came out of the mountains, a tight-riding bunch just like a breath from the past in their blood-stiff, stained and reeking buckskins. They all wore beaver tail caps, and their hair was shoulder-length, their features almost completely hidden behind bushy, matted beards. They were the Buckskinners, and they robbed and often killed to get what they wanted.

But now it seemed that they’d gone into the kidnapping business, and the husband of the beautiful woman they’d abducted was very specific about what he wanted Yancey Bannerman and Johnny Cato to do about it.

If possible, they were to save his wife. But one way or the other, they were to kill the Buckskinners—every last one of them.

The tale begins in Mexico, where Johnny Cato pulls Yancey Bannerman out of a perilous scrape. A fierce gunfight erupts, and the two men barely manage to escape, crossing the border to safety.

Their respite is short-lived. When a brutal kidnapping shocks the region, Bannerman and Cato are charged with rescuing a woman held by the ruthless gang known as the Buckskinners. Yet the mission proves far from straightforward and nothing is quite as it appears.

This is classic Hetherington storytelling: a Bannerman adventure packed with relentless action, sharp intrigue, and unexpected twists. As the pair hunt for the missing wife of a powerful cattle baron—whose influence reaches all the way to Governor Dukes—the stakes rise dangerously high.

A gripping entry in the Bannerman saga, sure to satisfy long-time fans and newcomers alike.

Clay Nash #25

Paydirt in Scars

by

Brett Waring

(Keith Hetherington)

Clay Nash #25 

Wells Fargo’s top detective, Clay Nash, was transporting a wounded outlaw to San Antonio when he came across the town of Saguaro Flats. Immediately he sensed that the town was hiding a sinister secret. Marshal Mace Tanner ran things with a firm hand, and was not above cold-blooded murder when it suited him. That put him and Clay at loggerheads straight away.

Clay suspected that the town was involved in the smuggling of impoverished Mexicans across the Rio Grande, where wealthy cattle barons could exploit them as cheap labor. Before he could do anything about it, however, he had to prove it.

Technically, it wasn’t any of Clay’s business. But he’d just helped two Mexicans, Manuel and Rosa Alvarez, to cross the big river into the United States, and he hated like hell to think that he might have inadvertently condemned them to a life of pain, misery, starvation and ultimately … death.

Clay Nash rides one last time—and it’s a gripping tale.

From the moment he heads into Saguaro Flats, Nash is fighting uphill battles. Even before arriving, he survives two gunfights and a dangerous crossing of the Rio, all in the effort to drag Laredo Pitt back onto U.S. soil.

But the real trouble begins once he gets there. A crooked sheriff, a ruthless landowner exploiting Mexican laborers, and the slippery Laredo Pitt—who manages to escape again—stand in his way. Add to that a beating, getting shot, and the constant danger, and it feels like this could truly be Nash’s final ride.

As expected from the Cleveland stable, the pace never lets up. Hetherington delivers his trademark blend of sharp writing and relentless action, keeping the reader hooked from start to finish. I’m currently working through the installments I missed, and once I’m done, I may just circle back to revisit the earlier ones.

This was one I had to read in ebook form. 

Last Mountain Man #40

 Strike of the Mountain Man

by

William W. Johnstone

and

J.A. Johnstone

A young man has inherited a ranch—and a whole lot of trouble—in this Western in the New York Times bestselling series.

In Colorado Territory, Smoke Jensen is trying to live at peace with the big, beautiful world around him. Then a tinhorn named Puddle enters his valley—and unleashes a hellstorm of a range war.

Then the shooting started

Malcolm Theodore Puddle is a twenty-one-year-old shipping clerk—from way back East. What is he doing out here? The Mountain Man's former neighbor, Humbolt Puddle, has died and left his crumbling six-hundred-acre ranch to his only living heir, just as a greedy and ruthless cattle baron is circling the Humbolt ranch like a ravenous vulture. Poor, unsuspecting Puddle is walking into a death trap.

Smoke is the not the pitying kind. But any enemy of Smoke's neighbor is his enemy, too: Kill-crazy hired gunmen are threatening the whole valley and good men are dying. Puddle may not be much, but he's all Smoke has—as a take-no-prisoners mountain man and a timid tinhorn make for an army of two . . . in one hell of a fight.

Colonel Marquis Lucien Garneau—a Frenchman with a shadowed past, wanted back home for murder and theft—has crossed the ocean to reinvent himself in Colorado. His ambition? To become the most powerful rancher in the territory.

With Deekus Templeton at his side, Garneau begins seizing land by ruthless means. But he’s never faced a man like Smoke Jensen, a rancher quick on the draw and unwilling to yield.

When Humbolt Puddle secures Smoke’s promise to protect his nephew’s inheritance, Smoke stands ready. Garneau, however, has other plans. Templeton unleashes a band of hired gunmen to crush resistance. Only one man has the skill and grit to stand against them all.

This installment in the Last Mountain Man series delivers sharp writing, relentless action, and page-turning suspense. It’s a Western that grips from the first shot to the final showdown, keeping readers hooked until the very last page.

 Brace for Impact

 by

Anthony J. Tata

The hijackers were among the last to board. Three men in their twenties—sporting close-cropped hair, tactical gear, and carrying small duffel bags—stood out immediately. Alongside them was a sharply dressed Chinese businessman in a $3,000 Zegna suit, also under suspicion. Minutes before takeoff, Zara Sheridan, a newly appointed air marshal and former military police NCO on her first assignment, is scrambling to find their true identities when she receives a disturbing alert from the regional office . . .

An experimental fighter jet, the Hyperion X, has crashed near Sheridan’s North Carolina home. One of the jet’s senior engineers is on board Sheridan’s flight, en route to Taiwan to close a multibillion-dollar deal for Blackwood Aviation. His presence is not a coincidence. But by the time Sheridan realizes who he is—and what’s going to happen—it’s too late . . .

The plane is in the air. The hijack team takes over.

The lives of 350 passengers and 14 crew members are at stake. As tensions rise and the violence escalates, Sheridan uncovers shocking information about the new weapons technology the hijackers are after—and how it could change the course of global events. In the wrong hands, it could trigger a third world war. And she’s the only one who can stop it . . .

Terrifying, tense, and all-too-possible, Brace for Impact delivers a masterfully crafted scenario ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.

Crafting a story confined to the skies could easily feel restrictive, but Tata avoids that trap by splitting the action between Zara Sheridan in the air and her son on the ground. Add in a lethal assassin and shadowy private contractors, and the tension only escalates.

This marks a strong launch to a new series—tight writing, relentless pacing, and suspense that rarely lets up. The action unfolds so cinematically that it practically begs for a film adaptation, one that might even outshine the book itself. If high-octane thrillers packed with danger and intrigue are your thing, this one should be at the top of your list.

Thank you to Kensington and Net Galley for an ARC of this book.

Sharpe Series

 Sharpe's Command

(Sharpe and the Bridge at Almaraz, May 1812)

by

Bernard Cornwell

Outsider.

Hero.

Rogue.

If any man can do the impossible it’s Richard Sharpe.

And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Captain Sharpe is asked to do when he’s sent on an undercover mission to a small village in the Spanish countryside, far behind enemy lines.

For the quiet, remote village, sitting high above the Almaraz bridge, is about to become the center of a battle for the future of Europe. Two French armies march towards the bridge, one from the North and one from the South. If they meet, the British are lost.

Only Sharpe's small group of men—with their cunning and courage to rely on—stand in their way. But they're rapidly outnumbered, enemies are hiding in plain sight, and as the French edge ever closer to the frontline, time is running out. . . .

When you pick up a Richard Sharpe novel, you know exactly what awaits you: relentless action, simmering intrigue, and a brutal clash with the French. True to form, this tale delivers without faltering.

Sharpe and his men are sent to meet a guerrilla leader who promises them a secret path around Miravete Castle. Yet from the outset, something feels off. Their supposed ally proves treacherous—first demanding their gold, then their weapons, and finally, their very lives.

Cornwell’s writing is sharp and compelling, the pace unyielding. Once again, he grips the reader from the opening pages and refuses to let go until the final line.