Autumn of the Gun

Trail of the Gunfighter #3

by Ralph Compton

A gunslinger goes up against his own kin in this western from  USA Today bestselling author Ralph Compton.
 
Nathan Stone is a living legend in the West as a lawman, an outlaw, a gambler, and a wanderer through the wildest towns and terrain. He has blazed a vengeance trail, giving no quarter and asking for none. Fearlessly, he plays his cards and uses his Colt .45s as best he can in games of chance, skill, and savagery, for stakes of life or death.

Now he’s riding on a course that will test his rawhide nerves and lightning draw against the likes of Doc Holliday, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, the fleeing James brothers, and the incredible John Wesley Hardin as he heads toward a fateful rendezvous with the one gunfighter as fast and deadly as a teenage kid who kills like a man—Nathan’s own son...

More Than Six Million Ralph Compton Books In Print!

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Novels

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Ralph Compton (April 11, 1934—September 16, 1998) was an American writer of western fiction.

A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.

Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his passing, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David Robbins, under Compton's byline.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ralphc...

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. The first two books were really good and I fell in love with Nathan Stone but this last book was like Compton had a list of all the places Nathan needed to be and the times he needed to show up and the book was written just to get Nathan from one point to the other. Compton wove Nathan's story around his son's story. Wes had his own time line and they didn't match at all. One would be November 1883 and the other March 1882. Drove me crazy. Started picking up typos in the second half -- like Doc Holliday and Doc Holiday on the same page for Pete's sake -- which just made it worse. Still gave it two stars because it finishes Nathan's story but very unhappy with it.

[Shirlene]

Nathan Stone returned home from a Yankee prison to find his parents murdered. It took him 7 years but he tracked down and killed the 7 men responsible. He married and tried to settle down but his wife was brutally murdered and he tracked down and killed those responsible for killing her and became a drifter. He became friends with Harley Stafford and became involved with his sister, Vivian. Harley was critically injured by outlaws during a train robbery and once again Nathan went after those responsible. He ended up in a town of outlaws and an attempt was made to trade Nathan for a man put in the Yuma prison but Nathan escaped and killed most of the outlaws in town and left. He returned the money stolen to the railroad and met up with Harley and Vivian again. He tried to tell Vivian that when he ended up someone they most often ended up paying for it. She didn't listen and was shot. She wasn't killed but Nathan followed the man's trail and killed him. Vivian was left in a town where Wyatt Earp was the sheriff and he took to following Vivian around. Nathan didn't trust him and Vivian didn't like him so she left town with him, with Harley's approval of course.
While this was going on in Texas, John Wesley Tremayne was nearly 11. His mother had died in childbirth and he was being raised by his grandparents in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandparents knew Anna had an affair while her husband had been away. John hadn't found out that Anna's diary named his father as Nathan Stone.
They headed toward New Orleans and stopped by to see a couple who raised horses. They found the couple shot and left for dead. Vivian stayed with them while Nathan went to get a buckboard and took them to a hospital to recover. Nathan and Vivian tracked the thieves and with the assistance of a U.S. deputy marshal from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, found the horses. The thieves fought back and were all killed. Nathan, the marshal and Vivian decided to take the horses back after entering one of them, a black horse called Diablo, in a race in Little Rock. The prize was $5,000. Vivian rode the horse. Vivian riding reminded Nathan of his deceased wife, Eulie. She was the one who had trained Diablo.
Nathan and Vivian returned the horses to their owners in New Orleans and stayed a while. The owners were given the $10,000 prize money. Vivian rode Diablo in more races and won them all.
Nathan was asked to go to TX and pick up some new horses and he set out. He was shot at by some bank robbers and killed one of them. He was shot in the back. A posse out of Houston took him into town and he was sent to prison for 5 years in Huntsville for bank robbery. He hadn't even been to Houston until he was put in jail. The sheriff refused to let him send a telegram. His dog, Empty, went back to New Orleans. Barnabas McQueen sent a telegram asking Bryan Silver in Washington for help in locating Nathan. Nathan had been in Huntsville for a week before they found him. A Texas Ranger visited Nathan and learned the story. He told Nathan that an investigation would begin.
Nathan ended up spending about 9 months in Huntsville before he was given a new trial. The witness who identified Nathan turned out to be the sheriff's son and didn't want to make the sheriff look bad for rushing the guilty verdict. Nathan was released.
He was in Beaumont a year later when he spotted his horse that was taken by the true bank robbers. He caught them and they were sent back to Houston for trial. He didn't want these two dead. He wanted them to spend time in Huntsville like he had.
Vivian's brother, Harley, had quit the railroad and come to stay with the McQueen's and Vivian. He was racing horses along with Vivian. The McQueens were making a lot of money off their winnings.
It was a few months later, in January, that Bryan Silver came to see him. They traveled to Wyoming to see if they could stop some wealthy ranchers from stealing land. People were allowed to purchase land for $.25 an acre with the promise that they would make improvements. If the did, they were allowed to own the land when purchased for an addt'l $1 an acre. The wealthier land owners were paying cowboys to purchase the land and they were paid for living on it until they owned the land and in turn, they turned the land over to whoever was paying them. Silver was determined to stop this and came to Nathan for help. They ended up having to shoot the guy in Cheyenne but broke into his safe and found the papers necessary to prove that he had gained his land unlawfully. The ownership reverted to the government and others landowners were being investigated. Silver returned to Washington.
Meanwhile in St. Louis, Nathan's son was going by the name of Wes Tremayne. His grandparents had died and he had been in an orphanage for a couple of years. He was just past 14 and spoke fluent Spanish. He was at the head of his class in school when he ran away. He killed his first man when he was attacked while heading southwest in a boxcar soon as they passed through Kansas City. Wes took a job cleaning up at a bar in Dodge City. It was there that he ran into Harley. Harley had tired of horse racing and gone back to the railroad. Wes was being picked on but handled the fight he got into really well. Harley noticed that he was good with his hands and began teaching Wes how to handle a gun.
Harley worked with Wes for about 2 months and taught him Morse code. He got Wes an interview for a job with the railroad and Wes accepted it. He was told he would be called upon to use a gun. Wes started on March 5th. He helped stop a train from being robbed a short time later. He was traveling with payroll and Harley. Harley mentioned Nathan Stone and Wes told Harley that he would like to meet him. Harley told Wes that he would.
Nathan was in El Paso and headed to Las Vegas after he took out two guys while they were trying to rob the bank where he was making a deposit. He had half interest in a boardinghouse in El Paso. Other members of the gang were trying to kill him so he left El Paso for the safety of the women running the place. One of those women was named Molly and they had been sleeping together since she rode into town. Nathan's next stop was to become deputized in New Mexico and chasing down Billy the Kid. Once that was done, he became a house dealer and ran into a woman he had once caught robbing a bank. The town let her go once she was caught and the money was returned. She wasn't thought of as a risk because she was a woman.
Wes had left the railroad because he didn't like killing people who stopped him on the street just because they heard he was fast with a gun. He was traveling and ran into an overturned wagon and a dead man. He followed their trail and found a woman and her daughter. He mother had gone crazy due to what she had seen. Wes took them to a fort and the woman killed herself. Wes was nearly 15 and Molly was 18. She threw herself on Wes and remained with him. They were ambushed and Wes was shot boy the men who he had taken the women from. They left town and ran into a couple of lawmen who had been shot. They took the sheriff to Lampasas, TX and Wes was appointed sheriff until the real one healed. He then spread it around that he was representing the law until the leader of the gang showed up to take Wes down. Wes won the gunfight and the gang was broken up. The town asked Wes and Molly to stay and they did until Christmas.
Nathan was working as a card dealer in New Mexico and he ended up shooting Slack Tarno, who had a grudge against Nathan. Kate was shot and Nathan took care of her wounds. He and Kate started sleeping together after that. One of the saloon owners tried to force himself onto Kate and got mad when Nathan wouldn't let him. Seaborn was a counterfeiter who had gotten away with it once and was determined to use his partner, Yeager, again to get Nathan in trouble. Seaborn killed Yeager after he got the counterfeit gold eagles that he wanted.
The bank president went to one of the partners in the saloon and told him about the counterfeit money and he went to Nathan for help in finding out who was laundering the coins in with their profits. Nathan did some checking using Bryan Silver and found out it was Seaborn. The partners confronted him trying to get him to turn over the real coins and Seaborn ended up shooting at them. One of his bullets rebounded and killed Kate. Nathan shot him and he left town after she was buried. He traveled to Tombstone and ran into Mel Holt there. They had met when he had helped get Diablo back to the McQueens. He was in town and was there when Billy the Kid was shot and killed. He also witnessed Wyatt Earp and his brothers gun down some men they had a grudge against when they had held up their hands and didn't fight back. Nathan knew that they towns sheriff would use the law to cover up the murders so Nathan headed out again rather than make more enemies by being drug into a losing battle. He then ran into some people who had stolen government nitroglycerin and assisted in capturing them next.
Wes and Rebecca had gone to Beaumont and Wes was working as a guard against rustlers and horse thieves for the people that sold the McQueens their Indian gentled horses. He was robbed while heading to the McQueens by the three guys who had once captured Rebecca and her mother. He stole the horses back and delivered them to the McQueens. They were staying with the Bell's in Medina, TX when the rustlers hit various houses. They came to the Bell's and Rebecca was riding one of their horses when shots rung out and startled the horse. Rebecca was thrown and killed. Wes went after the killers. No one was supposed to cross the Mexican border but the ranger who had been sent to help told Wes that it was entirely up to him what he did. He probably would himself if he wasn't a ranger and that had happened to his girl. The ranger mentioned that Wes reminded him of Nathan Stone. Wes did cross the border and killed the 6 outlaws about 6 miles across the border. Wes told the ranger what he had done and sent a message to the Bell's telling them that Rebecca's death had been avenged. The ranger then asked Wes to become one of them. Wes was made a ranger and sent to El Paso. He stayed at the boardinghouse that Molly was running and Nathan had an interest in. He was just a few months shy of his 15th birthday and was becoming curious when Molly asked him if they had met before. He reminded her of someone. Wes was asking himself who was this stranger that so strongly resembled him?
Silver sent a telegram to Nathan asking him to meet him in Dodge City, KS. While there, Nathan was told about Wes and how they resembled each other. He was told how Wes was working cleaning in a saloon and how he been hired to work for the railroad. The man who helped Wes told Nathan that he hoped he would get a chance to meet Wes one day. Silver then sent another telegram to Nathan asking him to come to Kansas City. Silver asked for Nathan's help in tracking Jesse James. The law would do the capturing but there was a bounty on his head and he was wanted alive so the money he and his brother had stolen might be recovered. Jesse was shot and killed before Nathan could tell the law where he was. Frank turned himself in and they had to settle for whatever information they got from Frank.
Nathan headed to St. Louis to meet with Silver. They headed toward New Orleans together to see the McQueens. Nathan learned that Bess had died and Barnabas and Vivian were now married. Nathan was relieved to learn that Vivian had moved on from him and would be taken care of. Nathan and Silver parted ways and Nathan headed for El Paso. He stopped of in Austin and ended up accepting the job as Austin's city marshal. After a couple of his friends, King Fisher and Ben Thompson were killed, Nathan resigned and headed on toward El Paso after traveling to where they died to see if he could find out who had killed them. The witnesses to the shooting couldn't be found so Nathan headed toward El Paso to see Molly.
Wes was watching to see what happened in El Paso in regard to the dislike of the sheriff. The sheriff had made many enemies and had given up his job. Jim Gillett resigned from the Rangers and became the sheriff of El Paso. Wes had killed one of the Sandlin gang and was waiting for them to come get him. He told Jim that he was ready to take care of breaking up the gang and move on from El Paso. Wes and Renita had been shot at and the windows had been shot out of the boardinghouse where he and Renita were staying. Renita was the daughter of a gambler, Frank Wooten, who had been mistreating her. She asked Wes for help and Frank had been killed. They were now living together. She was about 3 months shy of being 18.
Three local ranchers had been murdered and a note left with their bodies saying it was in retribution for Wes killing three of their gang. Wes had killed two more outside of the boardinghouse. Wes resigned from being a Ranger in order to go after the Sandlin gang.
Nathan finally met Wes shortly after arriving at the boardinghouse. Nathan and Molly talked about Wes and their resemblance. Nathan figured out that he must be Wes's father and that Wes didn't know. He learned from Wes that his mother had been dead for a long time. Nathan was determined to help Wes in his fight against the Sandlin gang. The gang had killed more settlers and continued to steal horses. Wes had gotten himself appointed as the town marshal replacing Gillett. Wes resigned when the town council and all the people refused to help him draw the gang out to try and destroy them. The gang came after Wes and Nathan was killed shooting the gang members who where in town waiting on Wes. Wes was now 18 and was set to do whatever it took to get to Cord Sandlin and kill him for the death of who Molly had just told him was his father.

[Keith Zimmerman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodnight Irene. I love westerns. However, this is soooo hard to read. I feel it is choppy and poorly written. It does have a slight direction, but it is hard to tolerate the gaps that it leaves. I've picked it up three times to read it, figuring "maybe I just needed to grow a little to understand it better." NOPE! Still bad. Cure for insomnia possibly.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting enough. Nathan Stone moved around a lot to different towns and different women. Being shot at and always getting into some kind of trouble. Had his son that he didn’t know about in this book also. The ending surprised me.

[Jeffery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the historical fiction in Ralph Compton’s books and he is the closest I found to Louis L’amour in his writing style.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compton is a master of the Western genre. His stories full of action, good plots and spot-on, full of action and are a joy to read.

[Farhana Faruq · Rating 5 out of 5]

This kind of read like an autobiography of Nathan Stone. His life was interesting so you have those interesting moments, but it's not the best one I've read in the series - still enjoyed it.

[Danny Mcalister · Rating 4 out of 5]

was my very first raplh compton book

[Wade Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This whole series needs to be a TV show

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first book that I read. The others that I read so far keeps going back and forth with the characters. This book did have some good gun shoot-out information.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simply dreadful. One of the worst books I've ever read. I'm surprised the protagonist Nathan Stone wasn't a witness to the Custer Massacre since he is there for the killings of Billy the Kid, Jesse James,and the shootout at the OK Corral. He kills a couple of dozen bad guys while bedding four or five women and his dog must be 30 years old by the time the book mercifully ends. Save your time and money and avoid this tripe.

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reasonable Western, but not a very good one. Just a bunch of short stories tied loosely together and lacking any good description or, I believe, any research. Not reminiscent of LL or ZG at all. I quit at the half way point, but will try another and give him another chance. But this one is a "Skip it".

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not normally a western fan but a few writers seem to jump out and grab me. Ralph Compton writes a quick paced and very historically accurate book. Nice read with great characters. Very recommended

[Daddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

again this is a book for just reading with your brain on hold or asleep it is enjoyable

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Western

[Tom Hooton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read. Hang on for you won't be able to put down the book.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life well lived is over

Nathan Stone fulfilled his vow to avenge his family. Did much more to bring justice wherever he saw a need.

[Tymur · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many women can one gunfighter marry and get killed?
At the end it got tiresome.

[Jerry K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay story, but too disjointed. Too many contrived stories.