Kirk Hamilton

 Somebody Owes Me

by

Kirk Hamilton

(Keith Hetherington)

They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Ward Tracy found that out the hard way, when he chanced across a man in the desert who was more dead than alive, and against all the odds nursed him back to life. Before he knew it, however, he was accused of being an outlaw named Al Danton and standing trial for his very life.

What made it worse was the fact that the local lawman, a seedy prosecutor and a greedy judge all knew the truth, but they wanted to show the good folks of Darby that they knew how to deal with hardcases … with hang-rope.

Ward survived, though. He served five years in prison, breaking rocks day after day, week after week, month after month, in all weathers, and when he was finally released, he remembered the lawman, the prosecutor and the judge. And he decided that somebody owed him, big-time – and they were all going to pay the ultimate price.

Ward Tracy saves a dying man on the trail, only to discover he’s a notorious outlaw. Before Ward can explain, the local sheriff brands him as Al Danton, another wanted outlaw. The trial is a sham, the sentence is swift, and Ward is handed five years in prison. Lucky for him, because the rope was already waiting.

But prison didn’t kill the fire inside him. Three years later, after a desperate escape attempt, the truth finally surfaces and Ward walks free with a full pardon. Now he’s riding out to settle the score with the men who stole his life.

It isn’t simple. The crooked sheriff who framed him is running for mayor, and his hand‑picked man now wears the badge. Ward has enemies in every direction and none of them intend to let him live.

Then there’s the outlaw’s dying secret: a hidden cache of stolen loot. Everyone who knows about it wants their share, and Ward is caught in the middle. Greed, revenge, and old grudges collide, building toward a final gunsmoke showdown where only one man walks away.

This will be available from Piccadilly publishing through Smashwords when published. 

Kirk Hamilton

 Rawhide Breed

by

Kirk Hamilton

(Keith Hetherington)

Fate brought wounded gunfighter Logan Keogh to the Rancho Estrella. He certainly would have died had the beautiful Margarita Chavez not nursed him back to health. That put Logan in the debt of the girl and her father, and to repay them, he offered to go after Tonto Ramirez, the bloodthirsty bandit who was routinely stealing Estrella cattle.

But there were sinister forces at work on the Rancho Estrella, men who, for their own murderous reasons, didn’t want Ramirez stopped.

So they decided to kill Logan before he could reach the outlaw’s stronghold.

That wasn’t just a bad mistake … it was a fatal one.

In a land ruled by bullets and betrayal, one gunfighter will deliver frontier justice—no matter the cost.

After killing Lex Weaver—brother of the local sheriff—in a fair fight, Logan Keogh has only two choices: run, or face a man who won’t stop until he’s dead. Keogh chooses the latter and makes for Mexico. But before he gets far, an ambush leaves him wounded and near death. When he finally wakes, he’s in a warm bed at Rancho Estrella.

Once he’s back on his feet, Keogh agrees to hunt down Tonto Ramirez, a bandit stealing stock from the ranch. But nothing at Rancho Estrella is quite what it seems, and Keogh soon finds himself fighting for his life all over again. Add to that Earl Weaver—hell‑bent on avenging his kin and putting Keogh in the ground—and the odds of Keogh making it out alive shrink fast.

A great story: well written, packed with action, and every bit as entertaining now as the westerns I devoured in my younger days.

You can get the book from Piccadilly Publishing here!

Kirk Hamilton

 Ride the Lawless Land

Bannerman the Enforcer #2

by

Kirk Hamilton

(Keith Hetherington)

Twenty one thousand dollars ... to get their hands on it, Reno Slade and his gang killed two innocent people and then high-tailed it into the Indian Territory. But they hadn’t reckoned on Sven Johansen’s daughter Anya, who would stop at nothing to bring her parents’ killers to justice.

She knew exactly the way to do it, too. She’d heard of Governor Dukes’ two ‘enforcers’, Yancey Bannerman and Johnny Cato. Though based in Texas, she knew they could flout jurisdiction and state lines, and ride the lawless land until the account with Slade was settled in blood.

She wanted that above all else. And nothing was going to stop her from being in at the kill!

Yancey Bannerman and Johnny Cato saddle up again in the second installment of Hetherington’s The Enforcer series, this time riding into the Indian Nations on the trail of Reno Slade, the man responsible for killing Sven Johansen. Johansen’s daughter, Anya, burning for justice, turns to the one person she believes can help her—Governor Dukes.

Dukes dispatches his two top enforcers to hunt down the killers, but there’s a complication: the strong‑willed Anya insists on going with them. Now Bannerman must not only face a ruthless gang of outlaws but also keep an impulsive young woman alive in hostile territory.

While it’s not the strongest entry in Hetherington’s series, it still delivers a fast-paced adventure packed with gunfights and tension. A solid, action-driven read that builds to a dramatic finale. 4/5.  

Brett Waring

 Reckoning at Rimrock

Clay Nash #4

by Brett Waring

(Keith Hetherington)

Clay Nash went undercover with orders to infiltrate the gang of a cold-blooded outlaw named Zach Forrester. To do that, he assumed the identity of a dead man. But from the very start, nothing about his mission went right. To begin with, Clay’s trail crossed that of an enemy from his past who was still itching to get revenge for an old score. Then he wound up behind bars, mistaken for the outlaw he was pretending to be. And then Zach Forrester broke him out of jail, figuring he was an old friend from Yuma Pen. That was enough to tip the balance altogether … against Wells Fargo’s toughest troubleshooter!

Undercover as both a dynamite man and the now dead outlaw Matt Dundee, Clay Nash is in trouble from the moment he rides in. Sheriff Brad Burns is the first obstacle—a man who knows Nash, hates him, and would gladly see him buried. Then there are the Forrester brothers. There were two, until Burns shot Clem before Nash even reached town. Now Burns has Nash locked up, planning to keep him there for as long as it suits him.

But the real danger comes from Zach Forrester, who once served time with the real Matt Dundee. If anyone can expose Nash’s disguise, it’s him. Even if Nash manages to navigate the early threats, he may still fall at the final hurdle—with a bullet in his gut.

Keith Hetherington delivers another gripping tale: fast-paced, twist-filled, and packed with tension. I originally thought this was book #2, only to discover it’s actually #4. Now I need to go back and read the two I missed. A solid 5/5.

Tyler Hatch

 Brazos Fugitive

by

Tyler Hatch

(Keith Hetherington)

They marked Jared Clay with a lynch rope but the scar went a lot deeper than that. His life was ruined, and when the chance came for him to square things, he took it with both fists and blazing guns. Before the final showdown, Clay has to run for his life. He is a fugitive with a 'dead-or-alive' bounty on his head and he must face killer deserts, Texas twisters, flooded rivers and treachery on all sides. It all ends where it began: Clay stands alone, surrounded by enemies...

The blurb from the back of the book says it all. There isn't much more I can add except this was a great read.

Tyler Hatch was Australian author Keith Hetherington known for his many, many Cleveland western stories. He also wrote Black Horse Westerns under several names. This is just one of them.

As with all of his stories, this was fast-paced with plenty of action to keep the pages turning until the final showdown. 

Kirk Hamilton

 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.

Brett Waring

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. 

Brett Waring

MAKE ME AN OUTLAW

By

Brett Waring

(Keith Hetherington)

A Classic Western #117

First Published 1974

Jim Rainey was an ex-lawman who had settled down with his wife and children to leave his previous life behind. But he gets caught up in a range was and his wife and children are killed he is after answers and revenge.

Once again, a smooth, well told story from Keith Hetherington. As usual with the Cleveland westerns there is plenty of action to keep the pages turning. At only 97 pages per story, they are a quick and fun read.  

Cleveland Publishing Company started publishing their westerns in 1953. At their peak the published 18 digest-sized westerns. Eventually they fell victim to the electronic age and readership fell away. They finally shut their doors in December 2018. 

Cleveland Publishing Company publications: American Wild West, Arizona Western, Big Horn Western, Bison Western, Bobcat Western, Chisholm Western, Classic Western, Cleveland Western, Condor Western, Coronado Western, Dollar Western, Fighting Western, Halliday Western, High Brand Western, Iron Horse Western, Legends of the West, Lobo Western, Loner Western, Peacemaker Western, Phoenix Western, Pinto Western, Rawhide Western, Santa Fe Western, Sierra Western, Sundown Western, Texas Western, The Avenger, Top Hand Western, Tumbleweed Western, and Winchester Western.

Some of the more prolific authors were: Des Dunn, Roger Green, Keith Hetherington, Richard Wilkes-Hunter, Len Meares and Paul Wheelahan. 

Kirk Hamilton

 The Fury of a Woman

By

Kirk Hamilton

(Keith Hetherington)

Amber Dolan was a woman with hate in her heart and a thirst for revenge.

After her husband was murdered in a stage robbery, Amber went after compensation from Wells Fargo. They refused to pay.

So, Amber found a man to teach her how to use a gun. Gil Satterlee. 

She became good. So good in fact, that Amber got a taste for killing.

Enter Ben Russell, Texas Ranger. It was his job to stop her. If she didn't kill him first.

Fantastic fast-paced read. Twists and turns throughout and a wonderful story by a western master.

Keith Hetherington