Murphy's Law

Cullen Murphy was forged in the fires of notorious towns, rough cattle drives, and brutal battlefields. And in a land where the strong prey on the weak, he's a law unto himself. Orphaned as a child, Cullen Murphy battled against life's cruelties as he drifted from one unforgiving frontier town to the next. A hired hand at saloons and ranches, he was aimless until he met a drover who taught him to drive cattle, and inspired him to build a spread of his own on the San Saba River just outside of the small town of Newtown. Then the war came and Cullen spent four years wearing Confederate gray, earning the rank of sergeant. Caught up in the viciousness and bloodshed, he became a hardened soldier-and a merciless killer. He fought in hard-won campaigns, gaining honor, only to become embittered by defeat. With the country in ruins and no family awaiting him, Cullen returned to Texas, only to find his home pillaged-and Newtown under siege. With no marshal or sheriff to keep the peace, outlaws have taken over the town, harassing citizens, and threatening merchants. But when these gamblers and gunmen target Cullen, they incur the wrath of a man who doesn't need a badge to enforce his law.

From the bestselling Johnstones comes the latest adventure in the wild life of Cullen Murphy, a West Texas legend-in-the-making, with big dreams, fast guns, and whose word is the law. BREAK MURPHY'S LAW, FACE MURPHY'S WRATH. Life is hard in the Old West-but so is Cullen Murphy. Orphaned as a child, he drifted from town to town across a merciless frontier, taking any job he could. Ranch hand, cattle driver, Confederate soldier. Whatever it took, he was up for the task. But when the Civil War ended, Murphy was ready to settle down and start his own ranch in Newtown, Texas, a beautiful but untamed stretch of land with no marshal, no jailhouse-and no defense against trigger-happy lowlifes. As rumors spread about a sittin' duck of a town in that godforsaken corner of the West, every stripe of lawless miscreant comes crawling out of the Panhandle. Like Spade Atkins, a degenerate gambler and gunslinger ready to bet his life away. Or a gang of outlaws itching for mayhem, with money to burn. Holed up three miles outside of town, it won't be long before they come riding through. But Cullen Murphy is not one to stand down. High noon or last call, it's time for the deadly justice of Murphy's Law.