Brian Garfield – författare

In the brutal Arizona Territory, Army scout Will Brady has seen enough bloodshed to last a lifetime. Hardened by years of tracking warriors across scorched deserts and deadly mountain passes, he's counting down the final days of his enlistment—and dreaming of walking away from the violence for good.But peace is not in the cards.When the fierce Coyotero Apaches break free from the reservation, terror sweeps from Fort Dragoon to the rugged Arrowhead Mountains. Settlers vanish, soldiers die, and the frontier erupts into chaos. Now the Army turns to the one man ruthless enough, skilled enough, and desperate enough to stop the war before it consumes the territory.For Will Brady, this isn't just another mission. It's his last ride.

Since being forced into retirement by the CIA, Miles Kendig had tried everything in an effort to satisfy his hunger for excitement. But he could not recreate the ultimate conflict of life or death with no rules, the experience of pitting himself against the enemy with no holds barred. Despite his bitterness at being shelved by the CIA, Miles was still scrupulously American - so when he found himself tempted by an offer from the Russians, he realized the time had come for him to put up or give up. He formulated a plan: by threatening to expose the espionage secrets of the major powers, he set himself up as the quarry of an international manhunt. Now there was no choice. He would either prove to himself that after twenty-five years of playing the game he was still a winner, or he would meet his death at the hands of younger men.

A rollicking adventure starring a young Theodore RooseveltIn 1884, Teddy Roosevelt''s political career is dead in the water. A New York state assemblyman with eyes on national office, he finds his ambitions thwarted just months after his wife and infant daughter pass away. Frustrated by politics, he retires to the American West to ride, ranch, and hunt buffalo in the Dakota Badlands. Nobody tells him that the buffalo are gone. He arrives in Dakota a greenhorn, awkward in the saddle and unused to Western clothes. But his aristocratic charm, natural intelligence, and love of nature impress the hardened frontiersmen, forming a bond that lasts the rest of their lives. When a wealthy French marquis threatens the pristine country he has fallen in love with, Roosevelt joins with the Dakotans to defend it. Before the presidency, before San Juan Hill, it was in Dakota that Theodore Roosevelt became a man.

In the Wild West, a desperate gang of outlaws targets a gold shipmentDuring the Indian Wars, Boag and Wilstach rode with the Tenth Cavalry, the most feared outfit ever to gallop over the American plains. But now that things are relatively peaceful, the two soldiers wander the land, cloaking their once-spotless uniforms with dust. To be men again requires money, and they have no skills but riding, shooting, and waving sabers. Luckily, those are just the kind of men that Jed Pickett needs. A one-time outlaw king, Pickett is a man of the desert, with his eyes on the greatest prize to ever cross the wasteland: Nearly one and a half tons of gold bullion are waiting to be shipped by riverboat. Boag and Wilstach sign on, agreeing to "a few days of work" that will either make their fortune or cost them their lives. In the Western desert, gold is scarce, but blood flows like water.

An aged Western showman reflects over his long and colorful careerFew bother to separate the myth of Colonel Hugh Cardiff from his real life. The nation knows him as a sharpshooter, buffalo hunter, moving pictures pioneer, and one-time proprietor of the greatest Wild West show the nation has ever seen. Some of the stories are true, some exaggerated, and some rank among the wildest of tall tales. But for a man who has lived like Colonel Cardiff, the facts trump the myth. In the spring of 1868, Denver is the richest, wildest city west of the Mississippi. When an overweight Easterner named Dr. Bogardus rolls into town to announce a shooting contest with a $1,000 prize, ears prick up. Young Hugh wins the shoot with an ancient muzzle-loading rifle, knocking glass balls out of the air and missing only four out of one hundred targets. He is famous at nineteen, and the Colonel’s wild life is just getting started.

A crack team of American specialists makes a deadly run into North VietnamCliffs hang over the rail bridge that crosses the Sang Chu River, protecting the vital North Vietnamese supply line from attack by American bombers. It’s only accessible by a parachute drop that would put American GIs deep behind enemy lines. No point on the Ho Chi Minh Trail is more crucial to the Viet Cong war effort, and nowhere is more tightly guarded. Colonel David Tyreen has just sent a team to destroy the bridge, and none returned. It’s time to assemble another team. The weather is awful, and the only plane available is a rickety old captured jet. Tyreen’s mission is suicide, pure and simple, and he asks only for volunteers. The eight men who sign on have nothing to fear from death. This is lucky, for death approaches with all the speed of the swirling Sang Chu current.

After breaking free from a chain gang, the prisoners seek refuge in the desertZach Provo saw the dawn of the twentieth century from inside the walls of Yuma’s prison. After twenty-eight years on an Arizona chain gang, Provo seizes an opportunity to escape. He smashes one guard’s face with a rock, takes his shotgun, and blows the other guard away. Soon the twenty-eight men of the chain gang are on the loose. Provo sends most of them into the desert to hide, holding back the nine smartest fugitives. While the police hunt for the men who ran, his group waits for nightfall, hidden in the mud of a dry riverbed. At dark they sneak back into Yuma. Escape was only the first part of Zach Provo’s plan. Now comes time to deal with the man who sent him away—and the bloody vengeance of which he has dreamed for decades.

Eleven soldiers attempt to hold a river crossing in the middle of the desertThe Colorado River''s most vital point for American settlement is the ferryboat at Yuma Crossing. When the gold rush begins, a gang of white outlaws seizes the ferry from the local Yuma tribesmen, who have operated the crossing for decades. The US Army rousts the outlaws, but the high command decides to keep the crossing rather than return it to the Yuma. No one considers how badly the Yumas want the ferry back. Left in command of the ferry is Lieutenant Thomas Sweeny, a one-armed Irishman who wins the dangerous assignment by bringing charges against an alcoholic major. Hundreds of miles from reinforcements, he occupies the position with a ten-man force, limited supplies, and no way to call for help. In the distance, four hundred Yuma prepare for battle, intent on reclaiming what once was theirs.

A California politician goes to Mexico to make himself kingThe Sonorans hire Henry Crabb to protect them from Apaches. In the lawless days that followed the Mexican-American War, bands of Indians roamed the countryside, preying on the hard-working peasants of northern Mexico. Desperate for help, a farming community offers Crabb land to establish a colony in exchange for a year''s protection from the marauders. The Sonorans do not recognize that Crabb—a Californian with frustrated political ambition—is the greatest threat of all. Although their deal was for peaceful settlement, Crabb''s thoughts turn quickly to conquest. In the tradition of American filibusters like William Walker, Crabb attempts to establish Sonora as an independent country—with him as the dictator. Based on a true story, this is a stunning narrative of conquest, adventure, and the shocking lengths to which ambition can drive men.

Tall, handsome, charming Col. Richard Meinertzhagen (1878–1967) was an acclaimed British war hero, a secret agent, and a dean of international ornithology. His exploits inspired three biographies, movies have been based on his life, and a square in Jerusalem is dedicated to his memory. Meinertzhagen was trusted by Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben Gurion, T. E. Lawrence, Elspeth Huxley, and a great many others. He bamboozled them all. Meinertzhagen was a fraud. Many of the adventures recorded in his celebrated diaries were imaginary, including a meeting with Hitler while he had a loaded pistol in his pocket, an attempt to rescue the Russian royal family in 1918, and a shoot-out with Arabs in Haifa when he was seventy years old. True, he was a key player in Middle Eastern events after World War I, and during the 1930s he represented Zionism's interests in negotiations with Germany. But he also set up Nazi front organizations in England, committed a half-century of major and costly scientific fraud, and -- oddly -- may have been innocent of many killings to which he confessed (e.g., the murder of his own polo groom -- a crime of which he cheerfully boasted, although the evidence suggests it never occurred at all). Further, he may have been guilty of at least one homicide of which he professed innocence. A compelling read about a flamboyant rogue, The Meinertzhagen Mystery shows how recorded history reflects not what happened, but what we believe happened.

Tall, handsome, charming Col. Richard Meinertzhagen (1878–1967) was an acclaimed British war hero, a secret agent, and a dean of international ornithology. His exploits inspired three biographies, movies have been based on his life, and a square in Jerusalem is dedicated to his memory. Meinertzhagen was trusted by Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben Gurion, T. E. Lawrence, Elspeth Huxley, and a great many others. He bamboozled them all. Meinertzhagen was a fraud. Many of the adventures recorded in his celebrated diaries were imaginary, including a meeting with Hitler while he had a loaded pistol in his pocket, an attempt to rescue the Russian royal family in 1918, and a shoot-out with Arabs in Haifa when he was seventy years old. True, he was a key player in Middle Eastern events after World War I, and during the 1930s he represented Zionism's interests in negotiations with Germany. But he also set up Nazi front organizations in England, committed a half-century of major and costly scientific fraud, and -- oddly -- may have been innocent of many killings to which he confessed (e.g., the murder of his own polo groom -- a crime of which he cheerfully boasted, although the evidence suggests it never occurred at all). Further, he may have been guilty of at least one homicide of which he professed innocence. A compelling read about a flamboyant rogue, The Meinertzhagen Mystery shows how recorded history reflects not what happened, but what we believe happened.

He emerges from behind the wall of silence.That mysterious unknown man...Carrying a weapon of revenge in his hand...With a heart that knows no fear...He roams the streets to take justice into his own hands...You don''t know if he''s a criminal or a hero.But you will only see him as a fist of anger that knows no mercy.A rebel who carries between the claws of his revenge one fate...Make one terrifying wish out of him...Death wish!!