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  RAVES FOR JOHNNY D. BOGGS

  The Despoilers

  “Boggs’ historical asides are aided by a narrative style that drives the story along full gallop.”

  —True West

  “Boggs has once more written a humdinger of a book with wonderful characters, even the villains. The Despoilers tears at one’s heart, which is what really good fiction should do.”

  —Roundup

  “Johnny D. Boggs tells a crisply powerful story that rings true more than two centuries after the bloody business was done.”

  —The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

  The Lonesome Chisholm Trail

  “Boggs is among the best western writers at work today. He writes with depth, flavor, and color, all of which are evident in this rite-of-passage tale . . . Boggs tells the familiar story with authenticity and power.”

  —Booklist

  “Realistic dialogue, a little humor to lighten up the dramatic tension, a strong plot, and a sense of place that leaves one sneezing from the dust makes for one of Boggs’s best novels.”

  —Roundup

  Ten and Me

  “Informed by accurate detail in almost every regard . . . Boggs’s narrative voice captures the old-fashioned style of the past and reminds a reader of the derring-do of western legends of yesteryear.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “This is an entertaining western in the classic mold. The characters possess enough human frailty to be believable, the author includes interesting stuff on the weaponry of the times, and there is enough gunplay to satisfy genre purists.”

  —Booklist

  Once They Wore the Gray

  “Another dramatic story by a finalist for the Spur award of Western Writers of America.”

  —Amarillo Globe-News

  “Well worth reading, especially as it treats . . . an aspect of the Civil War that is often slighted in the history books.”

  —The Shootist

  Hannah and the Horseman

  “I think Johnny D. Boggs is well on his way to being a major western writer.”

  —The Shootist

  “This book displays an admirable sense of percolating pace and point-blank prose.”

  —The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

  “Johnny D. Boggs moves his narrative at a lively clip, and it never turns mawkish.”

  Fort Worth Star-Telegram

  This Man Colter

  “Humor, action, and a wonderful character in Gwen McCarthy make this a delightful read.”

  —Roundup

  “If you’re into the true wild west, you will enjoy this rugged tale set in west Texas.”

  —Rendezvous

  Foundation of the Law

  “As is to be expected with a Johnny Boggs novel, Foundation of the Law is full of those authentic historical details that make his stories so rich and believable.”

  —The Shootist

  Law of the Land

  “Making bad guys into sympathetic characters is not the easiest feat but Boggs succeeds.”

  —Southwest BookViews

  “It is an engrossing story, and is told with Boggs’ meticulous attention to authentic detail and believable characterizations. If his characters, including the Kid, don’t look like, sound like, and behave like Boggs describes them, they should have.”

  —The Shootist

  “Boggs’ unique approach to the Lincoln County War’s legal skirmishing is both eye-opening and memorable.”True West

  —True West

  The Big Fifty

  “While I was reading The Big Fifty sometimes I would forget ‘my favorite son’ had written it.”

  —Jackie Boggs, Johnny’s mother

  “Johnny D. Boggs has a keen ability to interlace historically accurate information amid a cast of well-described characters and circumstances.”

  —Cowboy Chronicle

  “A fine novel that will leave you with the taste of grit in your mouth, and the smell of spoiled buffalo carcasses in your nose.”

  —Roundup

  Spark on the Prairie

  “Brilliant.”

  —Roundup

  “Stunning.”

  —Persimmon Hill

  “This . . . continues a long-needed look at those who brought law and order to the frontier—not with six-guns but with law books.”

  —True West

  “A finely crafted historical novel with fully developed characters playing out their lives against the backdrop of early Texas settlement.”

  —American Cowboy

  East of the Border

  “This is an amusing glimpse at a decidedly different side of some of the Old West’s most famous names.”

  —The Denver Post

  “We need more books like East of the Border.”

  —Roundup

  “East of the Border is a fun, lighthearted look at the thespian deep within every cowboy.”

  —True West

  “Boggs takes the historical facts . . . and gives us a fascinating tale of West meets East.”

  —The Shootist

  Dark Voyage of the Mittie Stephens

  “Delightful entertainment, which combines elements of the traditional western with an Orient Express–style whodunit and a Titanic-like romance.”

  —Booklist

  “Based on a real disaster aboard the Mittie Stephens, this novel supplies suspense, a love story, betrayal, loyalty, bravery, and deceit wrapped up in a tight plot supported by wonderful, three-dimensional characters and a sense of place that evokes the smell of burning cotton bales and the screams of terrified passengers.”

  —Roundup

  Purgatoire

  “Spur Award–winner Boggs takes a common western plot—old gunslinger looking for redemption—and injects it with genuine humanity. Solid fare from a reliable genre veteran.”

  —Booklist

  “Boggs is unparalleled in evoking the gritty reality of the Old West, whether it’s the three-dimensionality of the characters or the look, sound and smell of the muddy streets and smoke-filled saloons.”

  —The Shootist

  “Johnny D. Boggs deftly charts the dual resurrection of a dying Colorado town and a perishing breed of man.”

  —True West

  Northfield

  “Lively and entertaining . . . a vibrant retelling of the Old West’s most notorious and deadly bank robbery.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A fast-moving and strangely poignant tale that never pauses to rest.”

  —The Denver Post

  “This book stands head and shoulders above others of its kind.”

  —Roundup

  “The kaleidoscopic effect pays handsome rewards, fueling the action from all vantage points in concise, frenetic bursts that might even leave you feeling a mite poorly for those doomed outlaws.”

  —Booklist

  Camp Ford

  “Boggs’ carefully researched novel boasts meticulously drawn characters and captures in a striking way the amazing changes America underwent during the span of one man’s life. An unusual, very rich western that should attract not only genre readers but also baseball fans and Civil War buffs.”

  —Booklist

  “As baseball stories go, Camp Ford by Johnny D. Boggs is a home run . . . Think The Longest Yard . . . about baseball and without the glamour . . . Timeless.”

  —USA Today Sports Weekly

  Killstraight

  “It takes a skilled author like Johnny D. Boggs to drive the genre into new literary railheads, as he does in his novel Killstraight.”

  —Tucson Weekly

  Doubtful Cañon

  “Boggs’s quirky western doesn’t take itself too seriously, making this a fanciful and fun ride into some dangerous bu
siness.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Boggs delivers a colorful, clever and arresting tale.”

  —Santa Fe New Mexican

  “Uses its non-serious side to appeal to younger readers . . . well-flavored tale.”

  —The Tombstone Epitaph

  Walk Proud, Stand Tall

  “The author’s deft hand at characterization and the subtle way he fills in the blanks as the story progresses makes Walk Proud, Stand Tall a tender story hard to resist.”

  —The Denver Post

  “Boggs deftly balances the bitter and the sweet, the harsh landscapes and the humanity. That he manages it entertainingly is our reward.”

  —Santa Fe New Mexican

  The Hart Brand

  “Though an ocean away, Kidnapped and Treasure Island come to mind when reading this Western; Boggs’ tale nearly matches the quality of those written by Stevenson.”

  —True West

  “Some consider William Dale Jennings’ The Cowboys the best Western coming-of-age novel. Others would argue it’s All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy or When the Legends Die by Hal Borland. With The Hart Brand, Boggs stakes his own firm claim.”

  —Santa Fe New Mexican

  “Boggs, who writes with a finely honed sense of character and a keen eye for detail, combines historical fact with fiction to create a Revolutionary adventure from the vantage point of an average participant.”

  —Booklist

  “Johnny Boggs has produced another instant page-turner . . . don’t put down the book until you finish it.”

  —Tony Hillerman

  “The relationships and setting shine: Daniel—striving at once to solve the case and reconnect with Comanche ways—is a complex, winning protagonist.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A rousing story with an emotional and philosophical depth that will surprise readers who don’t expect complexity from a Western.... Explores the clash between white and native cultures . . . fundamentally different and strikingly similar.”

  —Booklist

  Soldier’s Farewell

  “This is not a simple Western . . . Boggs’ familiarity with the landscape . . . puts the reader right into New Mexico and particularly through the rugged landscape along the Río Chama. And while this may seem to be a fairly traditional Western, the conclusion is anything but. Another good read.”

  —The Roundup

  “Boggs . . . showcases his talent for period detail, atmosphere, complex characters, and the ability to evoke a stark landscape.”

  —Booklist

  “Ultimately, Soldier’s Farewell is a tale of two brothers falling far short of what their father expects of them, and what they expect of each other. This is another fine novel by one of today’s better writers of Westerns.”

  —Tucson Weekly

  MOJAVE

  JOHNNY D. BOGGS

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  RAVES FOR JOHNNY D. BOGGS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  EPILOGUE

  Copyright Page

  For Jim and Lynne Vanderhider

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Mojave Desert ain’t hotter than hell.

  It is Hell, with a capital H.

  Get stuck in that fire pit, without horse, canteen, or the good Lord’s mercy (or some poor, dumb son of a bitch to rob) and, quite honestly, there ain’t much for a sinner to do. Except stick that Spiller & Burr in your mouth, and let a .36-caliber ball put you out of your misery. Which is what I was about to do—would have done, in fact—excepting that I had no powder, balls, or percussion caps. Did I mention that a Spiller & Burr is an old relic from the late War of the Rebellion, and even way back then Rebels never had much use for them thumb-busters, and bluecoats knowed better than to shoot them? Least that’s what the one-eyed cur told me after I won the pistol from him with one damned fine bluff, convincing him that I had a straight against his pair of kings showing when all I really had was queen high. Besides, tired and parched as I was, plumb out of my sun-fried head, I doubted if I had strength to cock that revolver even if I had the ammunition.

  Like as not, you’ve likely read that story about that California Gold Rush gambler that this gent named Twain or Hart or maybe it was Dickens wrote where this gambler gets hisself caught in a blizzard and sits down beside a tree and puts a bullet through his own heart, saying his luck has run out. I ain’t read it, but there’s this gal from some hifalutin society who the warden fetches into Folsom, and she’s read it a time or two to some of us more literary-inclined inmates not being punished on the rock pile. It’s a right fair story. Only that gambler never had it so good. He was in a blizzard, where it’s cold and wet. Wasn’t frying in a furnace with vultures just waiting for fresh supper.

  My luck really played out about the time I won that Spiller & Burr. I had sat down inside this bucket of blood near Beal’s Crossing on the Colorado River. The Army boys still soldiered at Fort Mojave, and, seeing how I wasn’t wanted for nothing in Arizona Territory, I had lighted out that way to make my pile.

  The name’s Bishop, Micah Bishop. The time I tell about, I was around thirty or thirty-one years of age. I’ve never been rightly certain on account that I got brung up and educated and my knuckles rapped by the Sisters of Charity in an orphanage in Santa Fe. Course, I can’t go back to New Mexico Territory. Truth be told, if it weren’t for a couple of nuns who figured my hide was worth saving, I’d be buried facedown in some potter’s field in Las Vegas with a noose still wrapped around my neck. So I was done with New Mexico Territory. Same as I was shed of Missouri, where I’d also had to kill a body. And in the Indian Nations. And there was even those down in the great state of Texas who would like to see me hanging from what passes for a tree in that country. Not for killing. No, sir. No, the late Big Tim Pruett, a gent I rode with for a spell, once warned me never shoot no Texan, because there will be more Texans coming after you, and there’s just too many Texans to kill. But I did admire the horses they breed down in that great Lone Star State, and I sometimes wound up selling some where the legality of a bill of sale I’d forged might could have been called into question.

  Anyhow, since I got freed from that stinking dungeon in Las Vegas, I’d rode out of New Mexico and come to Arizona, and pret’ soon set myself up dealing faro, Spanish Monte, and stud poker for them soldier boys at Fort Mojave. Won a right smart of money. Then a worthless Spiller & Burr .36. Only a short while after that, some of them infantry boys begun to question how come luck favored me so much and the methods I was using when I was dealing.

  Well, you’ve heard that sad story. Least I have, often enough, here in Folsom. Honest gambler gets called a cheat. Harsh words get spoke. Some fools pull their pistols, and they ain’t no twenty-something-year-old relics, but long-barreled, center-firing Colts, Remingtons, or Smith & Wessons.

  Next thing I knowed, having gotten out of that stinking adobe gambling de
n with only a bullet hole through the crown of my hat, I was forcing the ferry man at the crossing to fetch me into California, muy pronto, while still trading lead with them infantry boys whose lousy shooting made a body wonder how in hell we had preserved the Union, freed the slaves, and whipped the Mojave and Paiute Indians.