“Stay the hell out of Fort Worth.”
Those were the last words uttered by the boomtown’s last sheriff. Rail-thin and half starved, desperate cowpuncher Jess Casey ignores the travel advice. Instead, Casey not only enters Fort Worth, he takes the dead man’s job. Now it’s up to him to keep the peace in a body-riddled slice of heaven known as Hell’s Half Acre—home of notorious outlaws like Kurt Koenig and his merciless gang.
For Koenig, the only good lawman is a dead one, and he puts a pretty price on Casey’s head. For Casey, that means war. Against him are the frontier’s fastest draw and a host of murderous triggers. On his side are decades of rock-hard Texas living, a couple of ne’er-do-well deputies, and the good sense to do all his talking behind the barrel of a fast-blazing gun . . .William W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before becoming a full-time writer.
J. A. Johnstone learned to write from the master himself, Uncle William W. Johnstone, who began tutoring J.A. at an early age. After-school hours were often spent retyping manuscripts or researching his massive American Western History library as well as the more modern wars and conflicts. J.A. worked hard and learned, later going on to become the co-author of William W. Johnstone’s many bestselling westerns and thrillers. J. A. Johnstone lives on a ranch in Tennessee.