Bøger af Max McCoy

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE SIXTH RIDERSONS OF FIREON THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR THREE BROTHERS FIND THEMSELVES DEADLY ENEMIES....BROTHERS-IN-ARMSOn the eve of the Civil War the hardworking, hard-fighting Fenn family is caught in the middle of a bloody guerrilla war along the Missouri-Kansas border.While Frank marries a pretty abolitionist and goes east to serve the Union cause, hotheaded Zachary joins the guerrilla chieftain William Quantrill and rides with such future outlaws as the Younger brothers and Frank and Jesse James. Patrick-who is unsure of his loyalties-heads for the Rockies in an attempt to escape the war, but finds there is no escape from his blood ties.Meanwhile, their Missouri farm is burned to the ground and the rest of the family, led by their strong-willed sister, Caitlin, is left to fend for themselves in a ravaged land. Fate has taken them down different paths, but before the war comes to a close, the Fenns are destined for one last fiery reunion that will force them to choose between honor and blood. "Personal struggles and enduring family ties form the emotional core of[this] novel...very readable." -Publishers Weekly "Max McCoy is one of the finest of today's new crop of western writers."-Don Coldsmith, author of Track of the Bear

Everybody knows that on April 3,1882, Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert Ford. Or was he? What if Jesse somehow cheated the assassin's bullet and survived to tell his remarkable tale to Missouri's other famous son, Mark Twain? Max McCoy, an award-winning novelist and investigative reporter, presents a captivating story of switched identities and fractured morality that puts a surprising new spin on the legend of America's Robin Hood....JESSE: A NOVEL OF THE OUTLAW JESSE JAMESCivil War guerrilla. Notorious bank robber. Outlaw hero. Most of Jesse's life remains a mystery, obscured by the dubious "facts" that have gathered upon his grave. But the curious manuscript at the core of this book-found recently in a southeast Kansas junk shop-claims to be his never-before-published autobiography, as told to the famous author of Huckleberry Finn. Consistent with historic record, it presents a compelling scenario for Jesse's survival-without disputing the DNA evidence recovered from the outlaw's grave in 1995. Vivid and engaging, Jesse brings to life the fictional meeting of America's most celebrated folk hero and its most beloved author-in their own words.

A Novel of Wild Bill HickokAces and eights-everyone knows the tale of the Dead Man's Hand. Wild Bill Hickok was a giant in a vast land, a celebrity in the days of dime novels and the telegraph. Few men in the Old West could fill his boots, but fewer still knew the real story, the making of a legend.To history, he was Wild Bill, but he came of age as James Butler Hickok. After his first showdown at the age of twenty-four, everyone could see that Hickok was a breed apart. As a green hand on the Overland Stage, he bravely faced off against a band of thieves. During the Civil War, he displayed nerve and savvy as a Union spy. And on one afternoon in the town square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok wrote himself into the history books-with a revolver in his hand.Praise for Max McCoy"McCoy at his best, proving himself once again as a master of his craft."-USA Today Best-selling Author Ralph Cotton

WINNER OF THE MEDICINE PIPE BEARER'S AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVELFROM WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICATHE MAKING OF AN OUTLAWThey were kin to the infamous James and Younger clans-the hard-riding, hard-shooting Dalton boys of Kansas, sired by a drunk, raised by a Bible-believing mama, scratching to survive in a West being tamed by the law. Samuel Coleman Dalton was the youngest, and at the age of thirteen he had dreams of an honest life. But one day an older brother was gunned down in cold blood, and Sam vowed to track down the coward who'd pulled the trigger. The trail of vengeance led straight into Indian Territory, and young Sam grew up fast, gaining a reputation and a name: the Choctaw Kid. When at last he rejoined his other brothers, the legendary Dalton Gang was born, cutting a violent trail in search of riches and renown that led to a last-stand showdown in the Daltons' hometown, where the outlaw band-surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned-faced death by hanging...or death from flying lead."I grew up in Coffeyvilie, site of the Dalton raid. I have put my fingers in the bulletholes in the storefronts. This book is real. Max McCoy is one of the finest of today's new crop of western writers." -Don Coldsmith, author of Track of the BearTHE AWARD-WINNING NOVEL BYMAX McCOYThe Sixth Rider THE DALTON BOYS ON THE OUTLAW TRAIL FOR GLORY AND GOLD...

Max McCoy, the three-time Spur Award-winning author of Damnation Road, continues his American Western saga of the Ghost Rifle as the violence and bloodshed the weapon caused return to haunt the man who created it...THE WEAPON AND THE WILDERNESSTen years have passed since Jack Picaro lost his Ghost Rifle-the firearm he invented, the one that never missed its target. The loss of the rifle calmed the hellraiser in his soul. Instead of returning to the gambling halls and whiskey bars of St. Louis, Jack has spent the last decade as a fur trapper in Wyoming's Wild River Range, married to Sky, the daughter of an Arikara war chief.Then, after helping rescue U.S. soldiers captured by Crow Indians in the Rocky Mountains, Jack hears the familiar bell-like report of his Ghost Rifle. Determined to retrieve his deadly property, he travels deep into Lakota territory, facing down old enemies-and resuming old sinful habits-unaware of what awaits him when he eventually returns home to his family."Few Western writers today can spin a tale with style, wit, and rawness better than Max McCoy."-Johnny D. Boggs, Western Heritage and Spur Award-winning author of West Texas Kill

Three-time Spur Award winner Max McCoy combines fast-paced action, frontier history, and powerful family drama in this epic saga of life, love, and death in the American west.SEARCHING FOR A GHOST, A LEGEND, AND A DREAM . . .Descended from a long line of ramblers and rogues, Jack Picaro came to America to seek his fortune. But after killing his best friend in a drunken duel, the apprentice gunsmith flees westward, leaving behind his children, Gus and April. As Jack ventures up the Missouri River, he finds an unspoiled land where a man can live free--and also be attacked by an Arikara war party. His rifle stolen in the bloody skirmish, Jack sets out alone to reclaim it. His wild escapade ends in a fight to the death with a legendary Crow warrior named Standing Wolf. So begins a fateful epic search across the last frontiers of the untamed West. From the muddy banks of the Mississippi to the shining peaks of the Rockies, Jack Picaro will leave a trail of clues for an abandoned son, Gus, to find him: a famous gunsmith who will make history with a weapon of his own design--and forged a legend that would be passed down for generations. This is the story of . . .THE GHOST RIFLE

The upper Arkansas River courses through the heart of America from its headwaters near the Continental Divide above Leadville, Colorado, to Arkansas City, just above the Kansas-Oklahoma border. Max McCoy embarked on a trip of 742 miles in search of the river's unique story. Part adventure and part reflection, steeped in the natural and cultural history of the Arkansas Valley, Elevations is McCoys account of that journey. Going by kayak when he canby Jeep, on foot, or by other means when he has toMcCoy takes us with him, navigating the Arkansas River as it reveals its nature and tests his own. Along the way, and when he isnt battling the current for his overturned kayak; braving a frigid Christmas Eve along the river; or joining the search for a drowning victim, he steps out to explore the world beyond the rivers banks. Here for instance is Camp Amache, where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Here is Ludlow, where thirteen women and children died in a standoff between striking coal miners and the militia in 1914. Farther along we find Sand Creek, site of a massacre by US soldiers in 1864, and, uncomfortably close, Garden City, where white supremacists were charged with planning a terror attack on Somali refugees in 2016.Whether traveling back in time, pausing in the present, or looking forward, Elevations captures the Arkansas River in its thrilling moments and placid stretches, in its natural splendor and degradation at human hands. The book shows us the river as a flowing repository of human history and, in the telling of this gifted writer, as a life-changing experience.