Deadly Is the Night

“Dusty Richards writes . . . with the flavor of the real West.” —Elmer Kelton

In the latest installment of his epic Byrnes family saga, Western Heritage and Spur Award-winning author Dusty Richards tells of the blood that was spilled trying to make Arizona Territory a good place to live

Rancher, gunslinger, and family man, Chet Byrnes lives to tame the deserts of Arizona, but if the mail can’t get through, he knows civilization will not take root. When a wealthy tycoon’s attempt to found a postal route in desolate northern Arizona falters, Chet takes the reins. Riding a buckboard across open, hostile country, Chet sets out to deliver the mail.But a trio of gunmen ambush him in the desert. They destroy his buckboard, but make the fatal mistake of leaving Chet alive. In an era when the price of a stamp was paid in blood, Chet Byrnes will blaze a trail across the west to make Arizona safe for the U.S. mail—or die trying.

“Dusty takes readers into the real west at full gallop.” —New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas

Author of over 85 novels, Dusty Richards is the only author to win two Spur awards in one year (2007), one for his novelThe Horse Creek Incident and another for his short story “Comanche Moon.” He is a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association, and serves on the local PRCA rodeo board. Dusty is also an inductee in the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. He currently resides in northwest Arkansas. He was the winner of the 2010 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for his novel Texas Blood Feud and honored by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009.