The McKay Family Saga Series

Death is a Sharpshooter is a classic western and military historical fictionalized account of sharpshooter warfare in the last year of the American Civil War—1864-1865. As the Civil War progresses, the McKay family tries to stay neutral but the fighting finally comes to them in a savage way. In a search for bushwhackers—based only on suspicion—a Union cavalry patrol murders the McKay family. The two oldest sons, two young black men—sons of plantation workers, and a young Shawnee man form the McKay Rangers and seek revenge. During the last year of the brutal war, they protect the citizens of western North Carolina by fending off outlaws, raiders, the Union Army, and a mountain man sent to hunt them down.

Although the war officially ended, the McKay Rangers could not stay in North Carolina, because the Union Army decided to keep the $10,000 bounty on all bushwhackers. They packed up five large wagons, married their sweethearts, and left on a bright Sunday morning. A few days later, they came up to the Green River—the southern border of North Carolina. The cavalry platoon tasked with border security was led by a familiar lieutenant—one missing his front teeth. Almost two weeks after the wagons slipped by, he finally realized that the man who had broken his mouth and humiliated him, had slipped through his grasp. Vengeance rose up in his heart like a tidal wave, with the blinding need to find and murder that vicious creature. The Union Army empowered him with a promotion and the authority to pursue the rangers to the gates of hell if necessary.               How does a wagon train of five slow wagons escape the efforts of the mighty Union Army to bring down a terrible and swift vengeance? Then again, would the Union Army survive, if they cornered the deadly mother grizzlies protecting their cubs?

The gambler has plans involving a gold mine, a railroad, and a hotel, all swirling around blackmail, bribery and murder. U.S. Marshal Henry McKay is tasked to investigate a stage robbery and murders, while his older brother, James, leads one of the first cattle drives from Texas to Denver, Colorado. Intrigue and betrayal follow as the drovers battle the elements, Indians, rustlers, and a giant, prehistoric bear. When they get to Denver, their troubles are not over—no, they just fell from the proverbial frying pan into the fire.

Death is a Grizzly is a western horror novel with adventure, gun battles, attacking Indians, and revenge borne of rage and helplessness. The great bear—an ancient species related to the modern day Kodiak grizzly—is wounded by a Cheyenne youth, the long arrowhead penetrating deep into his skull, but not quite enough to kill. The resulting infection drives him insane. During the cattle drive, the bear kills and eats some cattle. When the vaqueros go back to rope the bear, it kills and eats them also (Death is a Gambler). Bent on revenge, the cowboys sell the herd in Denver, then hunt the bear and set traps. But the bear is smart and begins to hunt them. Although the cowboys are well-armed and motivated, when the thunderstorm moves in after sunset, Mother Nature levels the playing field and the carnage begins.

When Civil War veteran, James McKay, returns home after the cattle drive and an epic battle with a prehistoric bear, he discovers that his beloved wife, Peggy, had just died of a heart condition, a few months after giving birth to their son. In his despair, he rides away with no particular destination in mind. Not long after, he comes upon a small wagon train under attack by a Cheyenne raiding party. He rescues a thirteen-year-old boy from a burning wagon, who seems to be in the middle of events, and becomes embroiled in a robbery with a half million dollars at stake. All events eventually lead to a small town on the Santa Fe Trail. From there the bullets fly and the story takes an unexpected turn. As James tries to ride home, he finds himself in one gunfight after another, and people learn to fear him. Because he is Death, and he is the Gunfighter.