The Widow For the past eight years the folks of Little Aces, New Mexico, have known Emma Vertrees as the wife of their now recently murdered sheriff. But Emma has more in common with the wrong side of the law than her neighbors could possibly imagine. The Fugitive A member of the notorious Hole-in-the-wall Gang, Memphis Warren Beck is on the run from railroad detectives. When fate reunites him with a woman he never expected to see again, Beck risks his freedom—and his life—for a second chance with her. The Lawman Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack is passing through what he thinks is a peaceful town. But the secrets and lies that have caught up to Emma and Beck bring violence in their wake, leaving only Burrack to dispense justice. *Preview of Ralph Cotton's Sabio's Redemption and Justice at the end of this book.

When he arrives in Little Aces, New Mexico, Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack must stop the late sheriff's wife, Emma Vertrees, who has brought violence to this seemingly peaceful town.

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack must find Texas Bob Krey, a gambler on the run from a murder charge who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, before bounty hunters and hired guns do. Territorial Judge Bass put up the bounty since it was his brother who was killed, although he was killed in self-defense. Complicating matters, Sheriff’s Deputy Price offered his own ‘reward,’ paid in advance, for Krey’s head, because Price was on the losing end of a love triangle—of sorts. Great characters and sub-plots in Killing Texas Bob. *Preview of Ralph Cotton's Montana Red and Season of the Wind at the end of this book.

Bounty hunter Marty Keller doesn’t expect his job to be easy, but he does expect to be paid. Stagecoach company owner Malcolm O’Brian has put a price on the head of a stagecoach robber, but it’s money he hasn’t got. After Keller dodges a hail of bullets to bring in the wanted man, he’s more than a little curious how O’Brian plans to pay. The stagecoach owner promises him double, if Keller can rid him of the threat to his stagecoach line for good. Now the bounty hunter is riding shotgun and aiming to take on as many outlaws as necessary—because on this trip the cargo is hot lead and cold death.

As the ranger's eyes searched, his hands deftly opened the Colt, dropped the one empty cartridge to the dirt, replaced it and snapped the chamber shut. He slipped the Colt into his tied-down holster, but loosely, knowing that he might suddenly require its use again. Some parts of hell even the devil didn't travel alone, he told himself. His gaze moved warily outward, through the raging swirl of white heat surrounding the town, out across the harsh Mexican badlands. After a moment he took the folded piece of paper from inside his riding duster and opened it as he kept an eye on the empty, dusty street. From between two adobe buildings, a skinny hound slunk out through the dust, picked up something from the dirt and raced away with it. "Dallas Fadden, you're marked off," the ranger murmured to himself under his breath. He looked at the list of names on the paper—thieves, rapists, arsonists, assassins, wanton murderers, degenerates all—the worst of the worst, his captain had proclaimed them. With a pencil stub that he pulled from under the brim of his pearl-gray sombrero, he drew a straight line through Fadden's name. On the ground at his feet, Fadden lay at the end of a long streak of bloody dirt where his trail of lawlessness had ended. A bullet hole gaped in the center of his back. The thumb of his right hand had been clipped off by the same single bullet before it bored through his heart. Seeing the bloody stub, Sam looked off in the direction the skinny hound had taken, and realized what had caused the animal to venture out before the smoke and dust had even settled. Sam folded the paper and put it away. *Preview of Ralph Cotton's Gunfight at Cold Devil at the end of this book.

Old ways and new clash in head-on confrontation: When journeyman hit man Ray Dylan agrees to look in on Sami Bloom, former mistress of a deceased Canadian crime financier, he realizes he must keep his profession a secret. What he doesn’t realize is how difficult that is now that he has fallen for this warm-hearted beauty. While he struggles with the idea of confiding to her about his secret past, Dylan learns that Sami Bloom has some secrets of her own—and her secrets reach into the upper echelons of the very organization he works for. Add to that a greedy young criminal, who along with his thug-like bodyguard, poses a threat to Sami’s life, and secrets or no secrets, Dylan knows it’s time for bullets to fly. In Friend Of A Friend, Cotton paints a stark unapologetic portrait of modern American crime, both at its ruthless struggling-for-power street level, and at its more discreet, tight-lipped, yet equally deadly seats of authority. Cotton has a unique way of weaving the reader’s senses into the story. Known for fast-paced narrative and wry dark humor, Cotton takes inspiration for his stories from TV news and headlines. He creates a raw and colorful, almost desperate atmosphere around modern American culture, yet at some point, unexpectedly, leaves the reader with cause for hope.