WL Cox's Books

Hunt helps a minister keep his son out of prison, giving the young man a fresh start on his cattle ranch. He and his men then head to Fairplay, where three ruthless killers have seized control of a mining town, posing as pastor and sheriff and murdering anyone who defies their brutal rules. Hunt's team also assists two Smithsonian scientists driven off government land after discovering a rare dinosaur fossil, before rushing to Durango to save a sheriff protecting a prisoner from a lynch mob. They arrive too late to prevent tragedy, and one of Hunt's best men is shot in a violent night gone wrong.

Hunt and his men keep clearing the plains of thieves and killers. In Denver when Ike Tolby's family arrives asking about Cole Tolby and his mother, only to be stunned seeing Ike now wearing a U.S. Deputy Marshal badge. Meanwhile, a family shows up claiming they bought land in a valley that turns out to belong to Hunt, prompting his trip to Michigan to track down the con man selling his property with forged deeds.

Hunt eases back into work after Green River, riding along on missions again. A tip about a Georgia bandit hiding in Denver sends him digging through Sheriff Drake's office for a wanted poster, though the vague sketch makes the man nearly impossible to pick out of a crowd. Meanwhile, a deadly train robbery near Grand Junction kills two railroad workers, and Hunt leads a long pursuit that ends in a tense standoff at a remote canyon, where the bandits hold a dangerous advantage until Gray Wolf comes up with a solution that saves the day.

Hunt and Ace escort the piano to Salt Lake City, joined along the way by Beth, the children, and architect William Henry Miller, who realizes the hotel's display area isn't grand enough for such a magnificent instrument. Both Hunt and pianist Jules Frigman are impressed by the hotel's progress. Back in Denver, Hunt joins his men in tracking marauding vaqueros hitting southern Colorado, and as the team juggles several missions, U.S. Marshal Director Earl Jefferson arrives with devastating news.

Hunt and the family return from Salt Lake City as new marshal recruits arrive for the Utah office, but one graduate rubs Hunt the wrong way, leading to a fired graduate, a fistfight, and an angry father who happens to be a U.S. Congressman determined to see Hunt lose his job. Amid the fallout, Hunt buys a Percheron horse ranch and finds a family to run it, but disaster strikes when a grizzly bear attacks him on the trail. Hunt manages to kill the bear, but ends up pinned beneath it and his horse at the bottom of a cliff, rushed to the hospital with severe injuries.

Hunt's recovery drags on, worrying everyone, especially Beth. Earl arrives from Chicago to take charge and assign the men to tough new cases, but after two weeks with Hunt still in a coma, he has to hand the Denver office to Ace and return to his own duties. Meanwhile, old friend Charles Crawford senses in prayer that someone close to him is dying, and without knowing who, rushes to Denver where he plays an unexpected role in Hunt's recovery. Elsewhere, the deputies return from a mission with a woman rescued from a killer, and during one of his visits, Earl finds himself falling for her.

Hunt's slow recovery wears on him as Ace and the team thrive without him, leaving Hunt to wonder if he's still essential. Earl arrives at the end of Hunt's leave to check on his return. Hunt also works to convince Junior to spend a year in Indiana learning the pig business. A tense telegram from Salt Lake City's mayor questions why Hunt isn't hiring more devout Mormons, while a mission to Utah tracks down an escaped convict hiding under a false name near the Henry Mountains. Closer to home, Hunt hires four brothers for the Green River farms, only to discover one robbed the hotel bar and badly hurt young bartender Danny, leaving Hunt questioning whether hiring them was a mistake.

After the trial against Julius Brown wraps up, Hunt and the three brothers head to Green River to work the farm. Hunt, Beth, Bethany, and Art travel to Chicago for Earl and Lois's wedding, then on to Indiana to visit Jr., Clover, and Mary, joining them at an auction in Columbus where Jr. is smitten by Jamila Williamson. Back in Denver, Hunt sends his men after a gang of thieves and rustlers who've kidnapped a rancher's sixteen-year-old daughter, with newly trained Hiram Joseph joining the chase.

This volume brings plenty of change for Hunt, starting with a deputy swept off his feet by a headstrong sixteen-year-old needing a husband to run her late parents' ranch. A telegram from Clover about his son Junior sends Hunt to Indiana, where he uncovers an unexpected situation. A trip to Massachusetts to help a family fight a corrupt judge and sheriff leads to a new connection and plans for another hotel and food store near Topeka. Meanwhile, Hunt's men are dispatched to New Mexico to clean out a town terrorized by gunslingers, and Hunt himself faces a young man sent by his dying father with orders to kill him.

Hunt's men are sent to hunt a wolf pack killing cattle, but the disappearance of every hunter sent makes Hunt suspect something else is at play. Meanwhile, his Utah hotels take shape until word arrives that the mayor's wife is scheming to pressure the Territorial Governor into forcing a cut-rate sale of the hotel and its prized piano to the church, threatening eminent domain if she doesn't get her way. Hunt scrambles to save the piano with help from Steinway's Jules Frigman. As two new recruits arrive to replace his losses, Hunt makes clear to Earl he won't babysit spoiled politicians' kids. After buying another ranch near Topeka, he inherits a vicious fighting bull he decides might suit a rodeo owner hunting for a new star attraction.

Hunt returns from Salt Lake City to devastation: his home burned down, his wife and maid shot by an unknown assailant. Consumed with rage, Hunt stays in Denver to watch over his wife, who clings to life in the hospital, while his men scatter to hunt the culprit and former marshals rally to help. Adding to the crisis, his Green River ranch is robbed and a young ranch hand murdered, leaving Hunt stretched thin as he fights to resolve it all, protect his family, and find them a new home.

Clay Rogers travels with Hunt to a livestock auction in Syracuse, hoping to convince childhood sweetheart Adelia Walker to marry him and start a rancher's life in Topeka. Back home, Beth continues healing and grows close to James and Emma Duckworth, caretakers of the family's new home. Meanwhile, word of a massive livestock auction near Allentown, Pennsylvania, catches Hunt's eye, with 150 Clydesdale horses up for sale that he sees as the start of a new breeding ranch in Topeka.