Frank Roderus – författare

Old Jug had been a ranch hand for more years that even he could remember, and he wasn’t getting any younger. Though not as quick or tough as he used to be, he could still ride and rope with the best of them. But when Jug discovered that cattle were disappearing under shady circumstances, someone wanted him out of the way—and he was fired from the only job he’d ever known.   Now Jug is going to find the men responsible and show them just how much fight one old cowboy has left.

Way back when, Danny Southern, Henry Read, and Red Clybourne were ten-year-olds together in Kansas, peeping on naked girls and stealing whiskey. As they started growing whiskers, they moved on to mugging passed-out drunks and robbing payrolls. But now, when they accidentally kill a man, their lucky streak of never getting caught is about to fizzle and burn.   To avoid the gallows, they have to run. But since they only know how to gamble and steal, the young men are in for the ride of their lives, full of narrow misses and loose women. And when “one for all and all for one” turns into two against one, not all of them will remain standing.

Nobody was stopping Leon Moses from settling on the spread he had bought with his pay from long, hard years with the 10th Cavalry. Not the slick lawyer who cheated him on the sale. Not the rustlers who ran off his stock. Not the law that turned its back on him. Not the neighboring ranchers who turned their guns on him. Not the attacking Apaches who turned the sea of grass red with blood. Leon Moses was a black who had to show a lot of folks that courage knew no color, and that they'd stop his bullets before they could stop him from taking what was rightfully his.

Cowboy had been drifting ever since he left his home in Yellow House Creek, Texas, moving from ranch to ranch, making enough money to buy the Triple X Ranch. It was a bargain...or so it seemed.

Heller's a law school dropout with a head for justice that's as hard as the Rockies and with a mile-wide stubborn streak. So he hires out to hopeless cases, hurtling into action when some big guy is putting the squeeze on a little guy - or gal. Heller fights hard and plays harder.

Somebody was stealing the most precious survival resource in the dry grass country: water.

The Keystone Kid had come all the way from Pennsylvania to be a cowboy, and stepped off the train dressed to the teeth in an atrocious freshly bought Western outfit. He almost instantly became the butt of some unpleasant jokes in the local bar. He made no attempt to fight back. He gained two things that day - his name, the "e;Keystone Kid,"e; and his reputation as a coward.

Amid the magnificent desolation of the American Southwest ran a river of hope, bringing life to the desert, and pioneers to a forbidding land. They gathered on the banks of the Purgatory...wandering souls on the run from the past...or in search of the future: Hernan Eduardo and his sister Elena, posing as husband and wife to hide her shame; Aaron, who has fled from danger his whole life, and who now would have to summon the courage to stand up for his rights; and Talks To Ghosts, a native on a vision quest, about to discover the tragic fate of his people. They joined in love and violence along the waters of the Purgatory...

Heller was just a big boy from the high country and he was having a rough time understanding all the fuss over protecting the secret development of a hot, new video game. Heller soon learned it wasn't a fun game, it was deadly trouble. The game could pay off in a fabulous fortune for G&C Electronics in Colorado Springs high-tech gulch and somebody was racing to steal the program. They were willing to destroy the company and anyone who got in their way. It was Heller's job to turn the tables and do some destroying of his own.

They were young, not so innocent, but certainly unprepared for being "e;turned out"e; into the sleazy hell of a no-limits, porno playground in Reno. There, tender flesh commanded the highest buck, but a young life was cheap. When a "e;clean"e; brothel owner hired Heller to wipe out those preying on the unsuspecting under-age, Heller willingly sunk himself into the dark, slimy underground. Women, drugs, blood-soaked profits, the whole girl-trade pipeline made Heller sick. Trying to shut it down could get him snuffed.

Popular demand for the Heller series has prompted the author to bring out book #8, the final encore of Carl Heller. In this book, Carl Heller goes undercover as a big time investor in the Snow King Ski Resort. The Snow King is the brain child of Harold King a polished and elusive con man. Heller is called into the case by Kat Sullivan, the girl-friend of a missing salesman hired to sell memberships in the Snow King Resort. Heller learns the Resort's terrible secret and nearly loses his life in a desperate gunfight in the mountain snow.

In this book of the Heller series, smooth talking Cory Teale charms his way into the confidence of the Ute Indian tribe. He even secures a power of attorney and the responsibility for investing the tribe's money. Heller's friend, who previously handled the tribe's investments, determines Teale is too good to be true and grows suspicious. Heller is asked to check the guy out. Assuming it would be a simple investigation, Heller finds more than he expects and gets himself and his girlfriend marked for death...

He did his killing behind a badge. He lived for the sudden bloodshed, the booze, and the women who made him feel whole again. And whenever the law-abiding hypocrites closed in around him, he always managed to slip away. But Joe Potter couldn't outrun the demons that were chasing him - not even on the wide-open Dakota range. For it was there, in a line shack in winter, that an Indian woman and her child finally caught up with a man burning with fever and hate, and plunged him into a battle with the truth, and his greatest fear of all. An authentic novel of the American West, Potter's Fields is a classic tale of what drives a man to violence - and what brings him back again.

Heller agrees to go undercover south of the border to investigate the disappearance of a young Mexican last seen trying to buy his way into Texas. Heller is caught up in a dangerous crossfire as he cozies up to the local "e;coyote,"e; a slimeball that takes desperate Mexicans across the river in the dead of night for a heavy fee and then sets them up to be robbed, beaten, and even raped by bandidos. The frightened prey are powerless, nobody cares, except Heller, and that ol' mountain boy knows more than one way to skin a coyote.

Heller's friend is looking forward to a million dollars - his prize quarter horse is the overwhelming favorite to win the Liquid Gold Futurity. But someone has other ideas, sinister ideas, and that's where Heller comes in. He agrees to protect the horse, for a fat fee and any willing woman. Heller is a novice at the track, but the mountain boy learns fast. And if the "e;accident"e; happens, he's ready to spring into action, even if it involves taking on organized crime in the state of New Mexico.

Harrison Wilke is thoroughly sick of Redbluff, Kansas. The town is a boring dead end, filled with unlettered roughnecks. His uncle Stewart - from whom he stands to inherit the Running W Ranch - can't stand him. Harrison doesn't even have enough money to get to the big city, where he belongs. There are a few bright spots. Things begin to look up when Uncle Stewart turns up missing and feared dead while chasing rustlers. Then Harrison invests $4000 in a very lucrative and secret deal. Of course Harrison "e;borrowed"e; the money from Uncle Stewart's safe. And Harrison also seems to be winning at love. But things do come crashing down...

Tenderfoot Harrison Wilke wondered about the three men. Heavily armed, avoiding the town, carrying gold coin in their saddlebags. Alert. Surly. Arrogant. Robbers, Harrison concluded, they must have robbed a bank or a train. Harrison thought about the money in the saddlebags while he worked. He had no idea how much was there or where it might have come from. But he was convinced that these three unpleasant men had come by its possession dishonestly. The question was, what should he do about it, or could do about it? As his hands moved at the routine tasks of dishwashing, he was beginning to get an idea...

Tenderfoot Harrison Wilke leaves Colorado and heads for Nevada. Harrison's oldest and best friend, John J. Trohoe, has died in a mysterious accident; and John J.'s will names Harrison sole inheritor of the estate. The estate is a disputed mine called the Amelia One, which hasn't yet proved profitable. But a group of California investors, who claim they hold the title, think it might be very profitable indeed. For the first time in years, Harrison feels a freedom he thought he had forgotten. John J. taught him everything he knew about riding the "e;rods"e; under boxcars and now Harrison is returning by that means to accept his legacy...

Out on the frontier, there are two kinds of men. There's the kind who's tough with a gun in his hand, who preys on anyone or anything weaker than himself. And then there's the kind like Stillwater Smith. Long and lean, Stillwater's a grizzled Civil War veteran. He doesn't take easily to killing, but he's always ready to fight for what he believes in. And you can only push him so far, as Asa Wheeler, wealthy cattle rancher, is about to find out. Wheeler's shady scheme to take control of local water rights doesn't set well with Smith. What Wheeler doesn't understand is that still waters run deep, and when Smith takes a stand, he holds fast. And Stillwater Smith is one man you had better not push too hard.

The inconceivable has happened. America has been ravaged by nuclear war. James Wolfe, a trucker driving on an isolated State Highway in the Northwest seeing the mushroom clouds in the distance, hid out in an abandoned mine. Now months later, after living on the pretzels he was hauling and a trickle of water in the mine, Wolfe emerges to a world he hardly recognizes. He too has changed. Barely thirty, his hair is now snow white; his eyes are unable to handle bright light, but his night vision is as good as others' day vision. But the most mysterious changes are his ability to detect and avoid metal emitting radiation, and his incredible strength. With dread in his heart, he sets out to find who else, if anyone, has survived this nuclear holocaust. Wolfe finds he cannot ignore the plight of those victimized by the new breed of outlaws called "e;Wilders"e;, and calls upon his new found abilities to help those in need. Now, he is on the run, hunted, with no one he can trust except an abused mongrel dog he rescued. With nothing more than a compound bow and a hunting knife, he must fight those who aim to capture him "e;dead or alive"e;, and make his way homeward, and into the clear. He is a wanted man, with a price on his head. In an effort to avoid the corrupt men searching for him, he travels at night far off the road where he comes upon the town of Paradise. But all is not what it seems...and the radiant beauty never lets anyone leave...alive.