Kent Conwell Knihy

As soon as Jake Slade and his partner, Three Fingers Bent, arrived in the small Texas town of New Gideon, they knew no one wanted them there. So they moved on, but they hadn't gotten very far when a posse from New Gideon rode up and accused Bent of murder. They arrested him and took him back to face a judge. The only way Slade can save his friend is to find the real killer himself.

Even as a child listening to the hushed, fearful stories told around dying fires of the loup garous that prowled the Louisiana prairies and ghosted through dark swamps, Tony Boudreaux always viewed them with the skepticism of an enlightened individual. Cauchemars turning living creatures, both human and animal, into supernatural beings was the fodder of middle age ignorance. But when the body of a prominent banker is discovered in the belly of a sixteen-foot alligator and Tony agrees to look into the incident, death latches onto his scent like a cottonmouth water moccasin stalking a wounded swamp rabbit. Deep in the dark bayou, surrounded by bellowing alligators, Tony learns the truth he hated to admit while trying to unravel the mystery of the banker's murder.

Exhausted after weeks of struggling to break the enigmatic code leading to the discovery of the Piri Reis map, Tony Boudreaux was looking forwrd to the simple assignment of running down a missing man. A few days after locating Justin Chester and escorting him back to Austin, Tony is stunned to learn Chester has been killed in a freak automobile accident. Chester's sister once again hires Tony to investigate. His investigation leads him back through a century of rural intrigue involving the myth of a crashed spaceship and the burial of its other-worldly pilot. Tony is skeptical about the town's rumored extraterrestrial encounter. His suspicions are confirmed when his search of the burial site turns up evidence of an unsolved twenty-year-old murder.

After a few harrowing months of stumbling through catacombs beneath a New Orleans cemetery, evading alligators at Bayou Teche, and dodging a band of fanatics searching for a crystal skull and torching rap clubs, Tony Boudreaux figures he deserves a rest. So when a San Antonio client offers a ten thousand dollar retainer to find a priceless map hidden in his deceased father's den, Tony takes the job. He enjoys the ambience of the city and the exotic venue of the River Walk. To his dismay, the simple task of finding a hidden map explodes into a series of attempts on his life and two murders with over a half dozen suspects, all of whom stood to gain from the map rumored to have been ancient even in the time of Alexander the Great.

It should?ve been an easy job for a private investigator ? housesit some cats for a couple weeks and rake in a few thousand bucks thanks to their eccentric owner's bottomless bank account. Practically a vacation. At least, that's what Tony Boudreaux figures until he finds himself trying to herd a veritable horde of cats, navigate a sprawling mansion with hidden tunnels, and deal with an eccentric staff who all harbor their own secrets. And that's before the murder! After witnessing a homicide on his first night on the job, Tony soon finds himself fending off attempts on his own life, unraveling a massive drug-dealing ring, and dealing with the not-entirely-unwanted attentions of a spoiled heiress ? all while keeping the mansion's many feline inhabitants alive and well. Now Tony must dig up clues on a fifteen-year-old murder mystery and determine what it has to do with the recent death. And the cats themselves may be his only chance of getting out of this deadly predicament alive.

A disgraced Confederate officer pursues the man who framed him into New Mexico, where he becomes responsible for the safety of a Northern couple.

Davy Nelson rode into Crockett, Texas to find a bunch of carpetbaggers stealing land from honest farmers. He took this personal, since one of the farms they were trying to buy belonged to a dead friend. Although outgunned ten-to-one, he devised a plan to use the skills he learned in the Confederate Calvary to cause plenty of mischief and save the day.

A Melungeon beauty, the sister of an old boyhood chum, comes to private eye Tony Boudreaux, hoping he can help clear her brother’s name. Tony takes the case out of a sense of loyalty but has no idea that the trail will lead to the underbelly of smuggling and drugs in the seamy intrigue of New Orleans’s gangland and to the man responsible for the professional execution of his young cousin several months earlier. Forced to go undercover, Tony fashions a cover story that will usher him into the confidence of Bones Guilbeaux, the cold-eyed leader of a diabolical band of smugglers who kill without compunction. His pursuit of the killer leads him through a labyrinth of dark halls, hidden courtyards, secret rooms, and narrow passages where he frantically tries to stay one step ahead of those he pursues.

Having created a new life for himself after causing the death of his adopted father, Clint Bowles, one of the deadliest gunfighters in the west, is stunned to learn ten years later that his father might still be alive. To find the truth despite the chance that his true identity might be discovered, he journeys to the foothills of the Sangre d'Cristo Mountains of New Mexico Territory where he finds his father. The old man refuses his son's help. Angered, Clint pushes forward without aid from his father and finds himself involved in a convoluted and deadly confrontation with powerful carpetbaggers, supported by the local law, who are determined to take his father's hacienda and lands.

Nathan Cooper is an expert scout and tracker. Arriving home one afternoon, he is shocked to find his wife, niece and her betrothed violently murdered. Swearing revenge, Cooper sets off on a quest to track down the killers--and heaven help them when his righteous anger delivers them to their maker.