The Lusty Breed

Chris McLean had been a professional gambler for six years and had learned the odds the hard way in rough dives, border saloons, and the blazing streets of boom towns. But when he returned to the family ranch in Arizona Territory to protect his brother's holdings, his luck suddenly ran out.He was ambushed and beaten near to death. He was robbed of his stakes. And he found himself cast out by his family, his best friend and his girl. Anybody else assaying those odds would have had sense enough to quit the game while he could.But Chris was not just a slick card sharp-he had always played straight-and this time he was playing for something that meant more to him than money. So he dug down and put his last possession on the line – his life – and set out to recoup or go down with his gun in his hand in a final turn of the cards of fate. The author of more than seventy books, Brian Garfield is one of USA's most prolific writes of thrillers, westerns and other genre fiction. Raised in Arizona, Garfield found success at an early age, publishing his first novel when he was only eighteen. Which, at the time, made him one of the youngest writers of Western novels in print.A former ranch-hand, he is a student of Western and South-western history, an expert on guns, and a sports car enthusiast. After time in the Army, a few years touring with a jazz band, and a Master's Degree from the University of Arizona, he settled into writing full time.Garfield is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America and the Western Writers of America, and the only author to have held both offices. Nineteen of his novels have been made into films, including Death Wish (1972), The Last Hard Men (1976) and Hopscotch (1975), for which he wrote the screenplay.To date, his novels have sold over twenty million copies worldwide. He and his wife live in California. The Outlaws series brings together the stand alone Westerns written by Brian under different pen names. It compliments his other series, THE LAWBRINGERS. Tales of desperadoes, robbers, murderers and just down-at-out badmen gallop through these fast-action novels.