WL Cox's Books

An epic saga of Huntley "Hunt" Porter, sheriff of a small Tennessee town controlled by a ruthless mayor. Fired for punching the mayor and arresting his son, Hunt becomes a bounty hunter, tracking a fugitive from Boston to the Missouri River. Along the way, he meets a U.S. Deputy Marshal who recruits him into the service, launching the story of Hunt, U.S. Marshal.

The Hunt II volume picks up after graduation from the U.S. Marshal Service's training. On his way to Denver, Hunt stops in Kansas City to find his friend, Deputy Marshal Burns, shot by a sniper, and gets permission to investigate before moving on. In Denver, he quickly earns a reputation for getting results, helping solve the murders of two fellow deputies along with a string of other crimes.

The Hunt-U.S. Marshal series continues as Hunt and Earl head north to investigate two missing army scouts, escorted to a Sioux camp by cavalry from Fort Carson. Their visit grows complicated when a man from Philadelphia arrives demanding the army's help retrieving his daughter, whom he claims is being held against her will at the camp. Hunt comes face to face with the man he once tracked from Boston to the Missouri River, with surprising results.

Hunt and his fellow marshals track a stolen cattle herd to Kansas City, the chase ending in gunfire. Back in Denver, Hunt is ambushed by a man running an illegal still, and while he recovers, the other lawmen search for a missing marshal. During his recovery, Hunt falls hard for the nurse caring for him. Not long after, Hunt strikes gold on his land, buys up 5,000 adjoining acres, and starts building a herd of prime cattle.

Hunt-U.S. Marshal V is packed with action as a Mexican gang of bandits descends on Denver to free their captured leaders, forcing the outnumbered marshals to call in the U.S. Cavalry. As the outlaws converge on the town determined to burn it down, help may arrive too late to stop them.

Hunt returns from training to take over the Denver office and a mountain of complaints, quickly dispatching deputies across the territory: Jed and Earl to chase bank robbers in New Mexico, three marshals to free miners pinned down by gunfire, two men to rein in an angry rancher's posse before it turns to lynching, and two more to calm a Utah town descending into chaos after its sheriff's murder. Closer to home, three men Hunt once captured break out of prison, vowing to kill him. Hunt gets approval to add two new deputies, recruiting two men most consider unlikely candidates for the job.

With two new deputies joining the team, Clayton returns from escorting Storm Warrior to the Boston docks just in time to back up Jed, who finds himself outnumbered after a sheriff's deputy is killed. Hunt's team is growing stronger, though he remains concerned about Dodd, still recovering from a bullet wound at the ranch. As calls for help pour in from across the lawless frontier, Hunt and his marshals work tirelessly to protect the innocent and prove to settlers that justice has finally come to the wild plains.

In this installment, Hunt gets an unexpected visit from Beth's sister and her new husband, a man bearing a striking resemblance to a fugitive wanted in New York for rape, robbery, and murder. Elsewhere, Clayton leads a manhunt across Utah after a sheriff's murder in a town that couldn't care less, while Earl and Jewels track cattle thieves and killers from Texas into New Mexico, ending in a border shootout and arrests. Meanwhile, Ben and Jason chase a mysterious highway robber who seems to vanish without a trace after every heist, earning the nickname "The Rock Ghost."

Hunt and his men head to Arizona to stop a Mexican militia raiding ranches and rustling cattle across the border. Hunt and brother-in-law Clover are wounded early on, forcing Hunt to seek medical help and leave his men to fight alone, until he finds a cavalry unit to help rescue them. Back in Denver, a deranged man threatens Hunt's family, sparking a full manhunt. Meanwhile, Hunt's deputies juggle a string of urgent cases: rescuing an injured, amnesiac young girl found wandering a ranch, tracking armed deserters after a deadly bank robbery, investigating livestock killings, and confronting a highway killer, a self-proclaimed fastest gun in the West, a lawless town, and a towering, dangerous man even the local sheriff won't face.

Hunt's men keep tackling crime across a vast stretch of rugged territory, including an unexpectedly dangerous evaluation mission for new recruit Dewey Longman, paired with two seasoned deputies. When the Denver bank is robbed by a ruthless gang, Hunt and a still-recovering Clover are the only ones left to give chase, until an unexpected visitor arrives just in time to join the pursuit. One of Hunt's men finds himself drawn to a young schoolteacher while helping out her father, whom he met on a mission.

Hunt and his men face perilous journeys, starting when Hunt finds Hidden Valley invaded by an armed squatter and his hired guns, forcing a shootout with his family nearby. Meanwhile, Jewels, Earl, Horse, and Ben head to Montana to take down a deadly road gang who secretly includes the Virginia City's own highly placed vigilante committee members, and on their way back to Denver, they pick up a promising recruit. Clayton, Jason, Justin, and Bridge track a band of killers near Las Animas but ride into a deadly ambush, leaving one deputy dead and the others wounded and fighting to survive days of brutal heat. When Hunt goes a week without word from Clayton, he must trust his instincts to decide what to do next.

The saga continues as Hunt sends his men on numerous missions, with new recruit Langley Frost heading off to training while Jim Blank and Jason Roberts recover from injuries. Dodd's experience helps the team avoid a repeat of Clayton's near-disastrous ambush. During his rounds, Hunt makes an unexpected discovery at Hidden Valley and investigates a hostile squatter terrorizing Cranky Charley's ranch. A mountain man threatens a railroad foreman, leading Dodd and Earl to a disturbing discovery: a frightened teenage girl held captive whom they rescue and bring back to Denver, where Beth takes her under her wing. The story also follows a manhunt for escaped Leavenworth prisoners leaving bodies in their wake, along with the investigation of a man vowing to kill any lawman who comes for him.