WL Cox's Books

Hunt keeps making the rounds to offices in need of support, and has a tense encounter in a saloon with a stranger whose name suddenly rings a bell. A trip west to check on Ben Collins in Arizona extends to San Francisco, and on the way Hunt throws two would-be thieves off a moving train. Needing to open a new Midwest office, Hunt finds the right man for the job and joins him and his crew in pursuit of the First Blood Gang after a train attack. A quiet day in Denver leaves Hunt depressed and reflecting on what he gave up for Chicago, stirring doubts about whether he should step down and move back home.

Hunt travels to Washington to strategize with Bekins on trapping the James-Younger gang, and while there, General Grant offers him a job. Things take a dangerous turn when Hunt learns the gang is hunting him in Missouri over the death of Joe Younger, and troubling news from Washington leaves him worried about Bekins. Meanwhile, the newest class of recruits includes one man from Arkansas whose background gives Hunt pause.

Hunt returns to Chicago for graduation and ends up filling in as instructor while Deputy Marshal John Rube recovers from illness, until  John returns to everyone's relief. A trip to Vermont turns deadly when deputies ride into an ambush, losing one marshal and leaving another wounded, making clear the need for a new regional office. In Denver, Hunt arranges a cattle sale and makes a payment to Charles Crawford, then swings by Phoenix to visit old friend Ben Collins before heading to Orlando to see Marshal Earl Jefferson, returning home with a unique gift for the family.

Hunt returns to Chicago for graduation, then travels through New Orleans, Austin, and Kansas City searching for a deputy to promote to Marshal, only to realize the best candidate is in Denver, but his promotion would gut his own team. Before he can decide, urgent news pulls him to Washington for a meeting threatening his career, where a tense clash with Jacob D. Cox forces President Grant himself to step in. Hunt then checks on his new Mississippi office and joins a raid on a troublesome postwar gang before pressing Grant to let him return to Denver. Grant agrees, but only if Hunt first joins Charles Crawford on a dangerous mission into Indian territory. Back home, Hunt also faces a setback when his beloved horse Gunner falls ill, forcing him to break in an untamable three-year-old instead.

Hunt returns to Chicago awaiting news of his future, only to clash again with the Secretary of the Interior and travel back to Washington. As Beth has second thoughts about Denver, Hunt wrestles with guilt over the decision, while a telegram from Ditch Combs pulls him to Albany to trap a gang of bank robbers fleeing across Lake Ontario into Canada, a mission that erupts into a chaotic shootout. Wanting time in Denver, Hunt travels alone when Beth chooses to keep the children in school, using the trip to hire ranch help and buy a neighboring Indiana farm, adding fuel to his case for a transfer. When Hunt finally confronts Grant again, the President sends him to one more dangerous assignment, to New Orleans on a mission that may not end well.

Hunt returns from Washington with good news, only for the train ride home to bring a shock: his youngest brother, unseen for sixteen years, boards after surviving three years in a Union prison camp, and Hunt takes him in help him with a fresh start. Back home, Hunt learns the couple on his Hudson ranch left months ago without a word, and a trip to Indiana for more Herefords turns sour when a manager's snobbish wife forces Hunt to fire them both to keep the rest of the staff from quitting. As his men tackle missions across Colorado battling murder and theft, Hunt loses a deputy and pushes Earl to honor a promise made to the fallen marshal, while Hunt himself settles back into the role of a U.S. Marshal.

Hunt and his men face several shootouts across this action-packed volume. Harold Vance arrives from Chicago to fill the void left by a deputy killed on a recent mission, while Deputy Kelly Morrison finds himself caught in a deadly ambush while guarding prisoners in a barn. Judge Moore then asks Hunt to lead a mission into Utah after an outlaw gang murders a fellow judge and several others during a prisoner escape, a pursuit that leaves another deputy wounded and introduces Hunt to a promising recruit for the Marshal Service.y, is sent to Denver to replace Bob Rolling, a U.S. Deputy Marshal who was killed on a recent mission. U.S. Deputy M...

Hunt and his men keep clearing crime from the plains while building the family's future. A search for a killer targeting isolated cowboys leads to a harrowing rescue in remote Colorado, while elsewhere, Hunt's men race to Steamboat Springs to save a sheriff from men looking to seize control of the town. Back home, construction begins on the Green River Ranch and sawmill, and Beth grows unsettled by a stranger following her and the girls, prompting Hunt to intervene. Hunt visits brother Luther with a surprising request waiting for him, and a trip to a government horse auction brings an unexpected hire for the Utah ranch.

Hunt has his hands full busy escorting Bella and Eduardo Ricardo, along with a crew of ornery loggers, to the Green River Ranch, where logging and sawmill operations get up and running smoothly. Trouble brews when a Wells Fargo stagecoach is found wrecked with six dead, sending Hunt's men on a manhunt and a vengeful brother shows up in Denver looking for payback. Sheriff Jethro Smyth arrives from Green River asking Hunt for a job, and Hunt expands his ventures further, buying another ranch to turn into a Clydesdale breeding farm and heading to Topeka to acquire more horses.

This episode is packed with surprises and shootouts, starting when Hunt intervenes to protect his adopted daughter Phyllis from an abusive boy, earning the wrath of the boy's vengeful father. Amid a string of missions, Hunt puts a reluctant Horse in charge of one, which succeeds and leads to a memorable meeting with a frontier legend. A bigger threat looms when a gang terrorizing California and Oregon turns east, evading the Army and heading straight for Hunt's ranches and Denver itself. Hunt leads his men to intercept them, and a fierce gun battle leaves several deputies wounded and one ranch worker dead, with the Cavalry arriving just in time to prevent disaster. Later, Marshal Earl Jefferson visits to tour Hunt's Green River ranches, and while there, a bank robbery draws Hunt into another shootout, this one revealing a surprising motive behind the crime.

Hunt and his men keep fighting crime on the plains, though the work costs him one of his most experienced deputies in an ambush. Personal drama follows when Cal and Phyllis announce their engagement, sparking a confrontation with jealous rival Timmy Galloway, whom Hunt had already banned from coming around. Meanwhile, Beau Hamlin visits from New York to discuss selling his father's Green River ranch, but a trip there turns deadly when a ranch hand claims the land was promised to him instead. A visitor from Washington asks Hunt to help track down a mountain man serial killer responsible for over thirty gruesome murders marked by decapitation, grisly staging and worse.

New deputy marshal Ace Sterling returns from Chicago just in time to help bring order to a small Utah town overrun by a family of ruffians. Meanwhile, the Phillip-Armour Meat Packing House asks Hunt to source hogs and cattle to fill vital contracts running low on supply. On the way back from Green River, bandits rob the train Hunt and his men are riding, setting off consequences for a rancher's family that ripple further than expected. Amid the unexpected turns, Hunt crosses paths with the grandson of the man who once owned the land now known as Hidden Valley.