Book Five: Deadman’s trapper

A winter storm blows a new stranger onto the Hunters’ ranch. He claims to have bought-out the  Hunters’ long time friend, Mr.  McLennan, but the old trapper never mentioned moving. When Luke and Joseph ride out to McLennan’s cabin, a grave isn’t the only surprise waiting for them.

While the men are gone, Annie and her new helper Emma face their greatest challenge yet. The stranger steals a horse and kidnaps Emma, leading Henry on a desperate chase.  Annie guards their home while minding her new baby and the teen brother and sister, Gerry and Janie Moran.

All this turmoil leads to one more first: a trial in Fort Laramie. Who will be called to give testimony and what will the outcome be?  

The trial isn’t the only concern for the family,  as Luke’s head seems to be turned from Doc’s daughter Caroline to Miss Hanson, the clerk at the Fort Laramie trading post. Will spring see a new house being built on the Hunter ranch? 

A wedding, a trial, and an unexpected addition to the ranch are all possible before the winter is over!

Available February 14, 2020.

A valentine for yourself 🙂

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Book Four: Deadman’s Christmas

Book Four: Deadman’s Christmas

For years, siblings Annie and Luke Hunter have enjoyed their frontier Christmas with only Annie’s fiance, Joseph Peopeo. This year their family has grown and they’ve decided to share Christmas traditions with their ranch foreman Henry Little Light, friend Doc Johnson, and Doc’s daughter Caroline. As they make preparations for their celebration some of the women from the saloon have set their sights on Henry. What the siblings hadn’t counted on? The price they’ve put on Henry’s head: one wanting him to wed, the other wanting him just dead. There might not be enough ribbon and strung popcorn in all of Deadman’s to brighten this holiday.

With the tensions from town and the holidays rising, will the whole crew be alive when Christmas morning dawns on the ranch?

Book Three: Deadman’s Preacher

 

Siblings Annie and Luke Hunter along with their friends Henry Little Light and Joseph Peopeo are in attendance at the annual fall barn dance – along with the entire community of the town of Deadman’s – when the traveling preacher who offers church services every month collapses. Doc Johnson finds the man has been poisoned. But who would want to poison a traveling preacher?

Meanwhile, the community of cattle ranchers is disturbed to find out that the preacher had been encouraging a sheep-farmer and his wife to move into their area, bringing sheep to the open grazing land where they keep cattle. Is this young couple connected to the preacher’s poisoning? If not, why do they lie about their connection to events? They’re hiding something but is it related to the reverend?

Henry, wanting to avoid an inquest where he’d have to give testimony that implicates Joseph in the poisoning, decides to visit his mother. On the way he discovers a recent widow, a wagon load of tobacco leaves, and a clue in the preacher’s poisoning. At the same time, the Captain in charge of the investigation begins to suspect that not only might Joseph be involved in the poisoning, he may be a romantic rival for Annie Hunter’s affection.

Danger grows around the friends as the possibility of Joseph being charged with a crime grows. If they can’t find the real reason – and person – responsible for the preacher’s death, then justice may go badly awry, taking Joseph with it.

 

Amazon Review

5 out of 5 stars

“It’s nice to read a book that includes diverse characters, strong women, good dialogue, and a compelling pace and plot line. Too often it seems that reading stories within a genre (historical, western, mystery, some romance) one has to give up on good writing. And if you’re lucky and find a fairly well written book, then it lacks authentic detail or just gets things wrong. This book is the full package. Plus, it’s a fun read with characters who are increasingly becoming like my friends. I not only enjoy knowing them but look forward to spending more time with them, so hopefully there will be many more books to come in this series.”

Order on Amazon

Book Two: Deadman’s Daughters

 

Doc Johnson, friend of siblings Annie and Luke Hunter, is happily, if nervously, awaiting the arrival of his daughter, Caroline. Doc hasn’t seen Caroline since he moved to Fort Laramie four years earlier. When Doc is attacked, Annie and Luke are worried but believe it must be a case of mistaken identity. While caring for Doc, the siblings are shocked when the attacker returns to try and finish him off.

 

As if keeping Doc alive isn’t challenge enough, Luke and Annie’s foster brother, Joseph Peopeo, has unexpected news that threatens to turn their lives upside-down. While the siblings juggle the tribulations they face, their hired hand, Henry Little Light, has his own struggle – trying to keep the ranch running among all the chaos. Henry feels forced to accept help from a neighbor the Hunters do not want to be indebted to. In addition, add a new would-be suitor for Annie and the family has their hands more than full.

 

Once again, the Hunters are involved in a face-off that could have deadly consequences.

 

Deadman’s Daughters: order

 

 

Book One: Deadman’s Stagecoach

 

 

Collie Dog Press is proud to release our first book in the Historical, Western-Mystery, Deadman’s Series!

Book One

 Siblings Annie and Luke Hunter run a cattle ranch they’ve inherited from their parents, in what is known as The Territories and will soon become the Wyoming Territories. Their father was a fur trapper who settled the land before it was officially opened to settlement. When they were young children, their father traded cattle for Nez Perce horses and along with the horses came their foster-brother, Joseph Peopeo. Joseph now raises highly prized, well trained horses on the ranch – horses which often feature the colors that will become synonymous with the  Appaloosa breed.

The ranch has grown to be too much for the three of them to manage alone, so a childhood friend who has been out to the gold fields at Sutter’s Landing is ready to return home and help them. Everyone expects that along with helping to run the ranch, he’ll be asking for Annie’s hand in marriage. When the stage he’s returning on is attacked, the question becomes – did the bandits plan to rob the stage or hurt their friend? What item(s) of value did they believe to be available? Did their friend make enemies he hasn’t told them about?

The stage brings another unexpected guest who stays on to help out at the ranch.

Henry Little Light has spent his life divided among people. His mother was a slave, taken from her white owners during a Kiowa raid. She was then traded to Henry’s father, a Crow warrior. Once his father died, Henry’s mother took him to a Fort and finished raising him among the white folk there. Since the Crow are matrilineal she thought his best chance for a future was learning to read and write, then picking up a trade. She even married a freeman cabinetmaker who started training Henry. Henry seems like a nice fella, he volunteers to help, but does he have a hidden agenda? Or is he just another lost soul looking to reinvent himself in the ever changing West?

 

Available to order now as a paperback or e-text.

Amazon page