Cirrus@Austlit

'Down on their luck, Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos were forced to take jobs herding cattle up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene. It was no hardship for Brazos—he’d more or less been born in the saddle and was cowboy all the way through.

'On the other hand, Benedict appreciated the finer things in life. On impulse, he quit the drive and headed for Abilene by himself, hoping to find a high-stakes poker game and a willing woman or two. Instead he found a town under siege by the hell-raising Texas cowboys who wanted to let off steam at trail’s end, and they didn’t care who got injured along the way.

'Many men had worn the marshal’s star in Abilene … and many had failed to bring law and order to the town. Now it was Duke Benedict’s turn. Plenty of blood would be spilled before the wild men of Texas learned that when Benedict wore a star, he meant business.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'They called her Little Miss Pretty. Her real name was Dixie Talon, and she was the newborn daughter of railroad magnate Conrad Talon. Which meant that the tiny baby was worth big money to the gang that kidnapped and held her to ransom.

'The gang was led by Scarlett Considine and Jesse Mansfield, the so-called Sweetheart Killers, and they had not a single ounce of compassion for the vulnerable infant in their care. But once Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos took a look into Dixie’s little shoe-button eyes, they decided that the Sweetheart Killers and their cut-throat followers were going to pay for their crime. The trouble was, when it came to a showdown, could Benedict or Brazos kill a woman, especially a woman like Scarlett?

'That was when Fate stepped in and blew the whole deal to shreds.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'War was declared in the desert ghost town called Hardluck.

'Duke Benedict killed Jory Archer in a gunfight six months earlier. Now Jory’s brother, Teal, wanted to even the score. Teal brought a bunch of the toughest cutthroats ever to rob a stage or blow a bank safe. But no one banked on the Outlaw Queen Clementine Jones. When Teal ran out on Clementine, her affection for him became hate, and a burning desire for revenge.

'The odds against Benedict were sky-high, but big Hank Brazos was backing him up. Together they were a veritable two-man army. Before it was over, Boot Hill was going to get awful crowded!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'He was a dead man walking, staggering into the hotel lobby with a knife sticking out of one ear. When he hit the floor the blade penetrated his brain and finished him off. Several men had reason to hate Harvey Yardigan, but a witness came forward to accuse Duke Benedict.

'Benedict and his partner, Hank Brazos, had been sent to the town of Mirage on secret business, to clean up the hotbed of rustling and murder. Folks had started calling it “The Killing Ground,” and someone already wise to Benedict and Brazos was determined to make certain they failed in their mission!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'To earn a long overdue vacation, Duke Benedict intended to build up a stake from his poker winnings in Nogales, while Hank Brazos ran a string of horses into Mexico. Then Brazos was arrested and sentenced to hang on a trumped-up murder charge.

'To save him from a necktie social, Benedict threw in with a bounty hunter in Mexico on business of his own — business concerning Diablo, a man who intended to free Toltepec Province from the yoke of “slavery” with a renegade army. When Benedict and Brazos threw in with that army, the fuse was lit, and Toltepec Province was ready to explode!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Benedict and Brazos had seen it all before—a supposedly genuine treasure map pointing to a priceless, solid gold statuette down in Old Mexico. According to legend, the Golden Virgin of Santo Sabinas had been hidden away in a spooky, disused monastery deep in the Sierra Espantosa, a vast range of almost impenetrable mountains that were said to be … haunted!

'It was all hogwash, of course. But there was something about the map that looked genuine. And for a half-share in whatever treasure they managed to find, Benedict and Brazos decided to team up with two hard-luck brothers and a small boy who quickly began to idolize gun-swift Benedict.

'There was just one problem.

'Other greedier, crueler men also had their eyes on the Golden Virgin, as did a merciless colonel of Federales. And one way or another, he was going to have it … even if it meant torturing Brazos half to death … and then threatening to execute the child!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Without much warning, Hank Brazos got mighty mysterious took and off on his own. Why did Brazos go all the back home to Wildhorse County, start throwing his weight around and bad-mouthing "damn Yankees" at every opportunity? Benedict, the urbane gambler, followed him to uncover the secret secret. It was all part of an elaborate cross and double-cross that would eventually see both men fighting for their lives against a fanatical group calling themselves the Second Army of the Confederate States!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Tom Fallon of the Southwest Militia needed a man he could trust to get into an outlaw stronghold called Drum and rescue the beautiful wife of the state governor, so he called for an old friend, Duke Benedict. But Benedict showed up with a friend of his own, big Hank Brazos … so Fallon found himself with two good men.

'That alone wasn’t enough to guarantee success, though. First they had to get into Drum, and for this they needed the help of a sinister gunman called Holly, who wore a silver mask to hide the ruin of a face that had been chewed-up by a bullet many years before … and they weren’t at all sure they could trust Holly.

'Then there was the matter of a wild gun known as Caleb Flint, Killer.

'With the life of the woman at stake, they had no choice but to go ahead and see what they could do. So they loaded up their guns and set out in full expectation of the war to come.

'And war was exactly what they got.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Someone established a lumber camp in the middle of Fortitude Valley’s cattle country. To make matters worse, the lumbermen drafted in to work the axes and saws were paroled convicts! They could win their freedom, If they made a go of the chance they’d been given, but the Fortitude Valley Cattlemen’s Association had other ideas. Hank Brazos and Duke Benedict were hired to keep the peace between the opposing factions, but they landed themselves in the middle of an all-out war wherein the weapons ranged from red-hot lead to unstable dynamite!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two strangers rode into town on the trail of a gun-fast killer named Stark. When they left, however, they’d stolen $15,000 in gold dust from the Ophir Mine. They’d also given their names as Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos. That’s how Benedict and Brazos came to be wanted — dead or alive.

'Determined to prove their innocence and bring the real outlaws to book, they rode into a town with more than its fair share of intrigue. Nothing in Larrabee was as it seemed. Before the mystery was solved, there would be heartbreak for some, and cold lead for others …'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'To fill their empty pockets, Benedict and Brazos turned bounty hunters, and began hunting Billy Quinn, a kill-crazy maniac. All signs pointed toward Babylon, a dead-end town, but there was more to Babylon than met the eye. The law was administered by Bourne Murdock, and some said he enforced it a mite too heavily. Had Bourne framed Tom Sudden, five years earlier, so he could romance Sudden’s girl and marry her? Sudden’s sentence had run its course, and he was returning to Babylon for a final showdown — accompanied by four of the toughest gunmen money could buy!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'While running from a charge of stagecoach robbery, Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos encountered a wagon train heading across the desert. The caravan consisted of forty women, bound for the mining town Tarbuck to meet the men they’d agreed by mail to marry. Elsewhere, a kill-crazy outlaw escaped prison with one goal in mind — find and kill Libby Blue, the woman he blamed for his arrest and incarceration. Benedict had taken an interest in Libby, and wouldn’t allow any harm to befall her — even at the cost of his own life!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Back East, Duke Benedict’s wealthy family believed he was a prominent lawyer who moved among the wild west’s rich and the famous. So when his father proposed to pay him a visit in the rough-and-ready town of Rawhide, Duke had to think fast. It would kill his old man to discover that Duke was in reality a footloose gambler, womanizer and slick-as-lightning gunfighter. And so the pretense began.

'Duke Benedict took over the practice of his lawyer friend Otto Lanning, and his partner, Hank Brazos, took Lanning up into the hills to enjoy a little hunting. Too bad all hell chose exactly that moment to break loose.

'A mysterious preacher came to town with a whispering albino gunman in tow, their plan to set the good folks of Rawhide against each other until the town tore itself apart. Only then would the preacher have his revenge for something that had happened in the recent past.

'With Duke’s hands tied as he pretended to be little more than an attorney, and Brazos off in the high country playing nursemaid to his friend, it looked as if Rawhide was wide open … for destruction!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A war was raging between the Anvil Ranch and its rival, the Fifty-four. Men were being cut down from ambush, cattle rustled, and each side blamed the other. Joe Tucker, boss of the Fifty-four, hired Flint and Ram Brand, two of the toughest gunfighters money could buy.

'Burk Kincaid did likewise and hired Benedict and Brazos. But the urbane gambler and his partner weren’t interested in fighting a war—they wanted only to keep the peace. But the ranchers shared a dark secret at the heart of their feud. A climactic gunfight on Sheridan’s Main Street only marked the beginning of the end …'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Brazos and Benedict had fallen out … again. But this time it looked as if their long partnership really had been damaged for good. Now Benedict was the marshal of a town called Archangel, where tensions were running high following a series of audacious cattle-thefts. And Brazos … well, he’d been hired by the ranchers to find out just who the thieves were—and dispense some good, old-fashioned Colt .45 justice when he found them. Which put the two former friends on opposite sides of the fence.

'To make matters worse, Benedict had woman trouble, as well as a challenge from a gunfighter called Shane. As for Brazos, well, the rustling seemed to be coming from a spread run by a dangerous former Civil War general whose sanity was slowly but surely fading by the day.

'It was a power keg of a situation, and if they were to survive it, Benedict and Brazos would have to work together, one more time.

'That’s if they didn’t end up killing each other first!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Old Justin Wardlaw was dying, but before he cashed in he wanted to see his four sons together again one last time. Cleve and David had never strayed far. Cleve ran a saloon in town, David ran his father’s mining operation. But what of Race and Corey? Following an argument, Race had left home and eventually become a gun-for-hire. Corey, the dreamer, had taken off to read poetry and see the country first-hand.

'If and when the missing sons showed up, they would automatically be taken back into Justin’s will. And if that happened, Cleve and David—who between then expected to inherit Justin’s entire fortune—would lose out big-time.

'Which meant that Race and Corey had to die …

'Somehow Benedict and Brazos got caught up in the vicious plot to kill off the competition. Along the way Benedict sold Brazos’ beloved dog Bullpup, fell victim to a blackmailer and then found himself fighting right alongside a man he thought he hated!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'There was trouble in Fortitude Valley. Someone had set up a lumber camp smack in the middle of cattle country. And to make matters worse, the lumbermen drafted in to work the axes and saws, and float the timber down to the sawmill, were paroled convicts! If they made a go of the chance they’d been given, they could win their freedom. But the Fortitude Valley Cattlemen’s Association had other ideas about that.

'Hank Brazos and Duke Benedict were hired to keep the peace between the two opposing factions, but that was easier said than done. Unwittingly, they landed themselves right in the middle of an all-out war in which neither side intended to go down without a fight… and their weapons ranged from red-hot lead to sweaty, unstable dynamite!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The note, found in a remote spot, summed it up:

'“Señor Benedict is now my prisoner and will be held for ransom. You will ride to Panhandle, New Mexico, and wire the Americano’s rich father in Boston. He is to wire back the sum of fifty thousand dollars care of Señor Montoya. If you fail to do this or if the rich man does not pay, Benedict will be shot. If you do as I say he will be freed unharmed.”

'Paulo Parada, a psychopathic bandit-turned-revolutionary, sent the note. From everything Hank Brazos learned, Parada was a sadist who killed men for pleasure … so Brazos had to act fast to prevent Duke Benedict, his partner, from ending up another notch on the outlaw's gun.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos were closing in on Bo Rangle, the man they’d sworn to kill; the same man whose gang of cutthroats had massacred hundreds throughout the late Civil War. And Bo Rangle knew it. He planned to dig up the Confederate gold he’d stolen at the Battle of Pea Ridge and high-tail it to Mexico. If anyone got in his way … But still Benedict and Brazos kept after their quarry. They survived ambushes, shootouts, and the Lizard River. Once they dealt with Rangle, though, they’d have to settle with each other!'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Bold Venture ed.).

'Galloway’s two lawmen arrested Hank Brazos on a charge of rustling. Brazos went quietly, sure that his saddle pard, Duke Benedict, would soon arrive and clear everything up. But the law had other ideas. No ifs, no buts … Brazos would remain behind bars until the circuit judge found him guilty — and sentenced him to hang! Benedict decided to ride solo and arrest the real culprits himself — but to succeed he had to rely on Brazos’ irascible hound, Bullpup!'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Bold Venture ed.).