Copperhead Crossing
(2026)(The ninth book in the John Hayes: Texas Ranger Western series)
A novel by Fred Staff and Paul L Thompson
A flooded river crossing. A murder warrant fourteen months old. And a storm that traps hunter and hunted beneath the same roof.
Texas Ranger John Hayes rides into Copperhead Crossing with a warrant in his pocket and a single objective. Zachariah Dallas is wanted for the death of a federal deputy, and every trail Hayes has followed has led to a lonely river station on the edge of a flood-swollen frontier. The arrest should have been simple. Instead, a rising river strands everyone in place just as Dallas arrives under the protection of a powerful cattle boss named Stevens.
With the ferry swept away and the ford buried beneath raging water, nobody can leave. Hayes finds himself trapped inside the station with armed drovers, a frightened fugitive, a stubborn station keeper, and a growing crisis that has little to do with the warrant itself. Every man in the room carries his own loyalties, his own fears, and his own ideas about justice, while the storm outside steadily removes every possibility of escape.
As the floodwaters climb higher and tensions tighten, old debts, hidden truths, and difficult choices begin to surface. The question is no longer whether Hayes can arrest Dallas. The question is whether everyone inside the station can survive long enough to see the river fall. In a place where tempers are short, weapons are close at hand, and the outside world has been cut away, even a single mistake could turn a tense standoff into a bloodbath.
Filled with frontier suspense, unforgettable characters, relentless tension, and the hard-earned realism that defines the John Hayes series, Copperhead Crossing is a gripping Western where justice, mercy, loyalty, and duty collide beneath a single roof while a raging river waits just beyond the door.
Genre: Western
Texas Ranger John Hayes rides into Copperhead Crossing with a warrant in his pocket and a single objective. Zachariah Dallas is wanted for the death of a federal deputy, and every trail Hayes has followed has led to a lonely river station on the edge of a flood-swollen frontier. The arrest should have been simple. Instead, a rising river strands everyone in place just as Dallas arrives under the protection of a powerful cattle boss named Stevens.
With the ferry swept away and the ford buried beneath raging water, nobody can leave. Hayes finds himself trapped inside the station with armed drovers, a frightened fugitive, a stubborn station keeper, and a growing crisis that has little to do with the warrant itself. Every man in the room carries his own loyalties, his own fears, and his own ideas about justice, while the storm outside steadily removes every possibility of escape.
As the floodwaters climb higher and tensions tighten, old debts, hidden truths, and difficult choices begin to surface. The question is no longer whether Hayes can arrest Dallas. The question is whether everyone inside the station can survive long enough to see the river fall. In a place where tempers are short, weapons are close at hand, and the outside world has been cut away, even a single mistake could turn a tense standoff into a bloodbath.
Filled with frontier suspense, unforgettable characters, relentless tension, and the hard-earned realism that defines the John Hayes series, Copperhead Crossing is a gripping Western where justice, mercy, loyalty, and duty collide beneath a single roof while a raging river waits just beyond the door.
Genre: Western
Used availability for Paul L Thompson's Copperhead Crossing