The Big Empty

by Jim Jones

1886. Tommy Stallings, deputy sheriffof Colfax County, is tracking a bad man.Jake Flynt robs banks. He hates sodbustersand has a nasty habit of taking hisbullwhip to them, after which he burnsthem for fun. The man is a psychopathicmonster and the gang he has assembledis a “who’s who” of bad hombrés inthe Territory. Stallings must track themdown on the rolling plains of northernNew Mexico known as the Big Empty.The land goes on forever, the wind blowslike a banshee and you never know whowaits over the next rise. Tough duty fora young man who a few years earlier wasa drifting cowboy trailing steers up toColorado. Bodies pile up at an alarmingrate as Jake Flynt goes on a murderousrampage, and it all comes to a head in ashowdown on top of Black Mesa out inthe Big Empty.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Jim Jones is a multi-award-winning Western entertainer, songwriter and author. His songs and books are about the West … cowboys, horses & cattle, cattle rustlers, the coming of the train … songs about people and land, rivers and mountains, the beauty of the Western sky. Western novels, published by Speaking Volumes Press, include the Jared Delaney series- Rustler’s Moon, Colorado Moon, Waning Moon, Halo Moon, and Hunter’s Moon, the final book in the series. He also has a spin-off series from the Jared Delaney series that includes The Big Empty (2016) and The Lights of Cimarron (2019). His short story, Go On, is included in the anthology, Through Western Storms, published in 2024, edited by Richard Prosch. Jim also has written a children’s series, Bolo the Brave, which includes three separate stories and was published in the Spring of 2025 by Speaking Volumes Press.