DESPERATION VALLEY [West of the Wide Missouri] by Philip Ketchum

ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN VS. A RUTHLESS GANG OF KILLERS!

“Ketchum scores again with this brawling yarn of range hogs, rustlers and ranchers in a six-shooter showdown.” —REAL MAGAZINE

Bergen McKeough was a big man, slow to anger. He stayed cool when Sam Taussig’s gang of land-grabbers moved in and tried to steal his range. He even kept calm when they tried to frame him on a rustling charge. Bergen rode into the trap with his eyes open. He knew Sam Taussig planned to take over every ranch in the valley. Taussig’s own daughter Caroline had ridden out in the night to warn him.

Caroline wasn’t certain her father planned for Bergen to be gunned down. Neither was Bergen, though both suspected it was true. Now in broad daylight, she could no longer deny her father’s guilt. Counting on her father’s reluctance for her to see Bergen’s blood spilled, Caroline invented an invitation from Bergen to go riding.

Bergen admired the young woman’s rebellious spirit. She had a courage he had never seen matched. Challenged by her quick fiery temper, his feelings for her quickly turn to love - as hers do for him.

Boldly defying her father’s protests, she joined Bergen in the fight against her father’s murderous plan. Caroline was determined to free herself from her father’s domination. Sheltering with Bergen McKeough and Bergen’s crippled father, Matt, Caroline was an eyewitness when Matt McKeough, owner of the ranch, was shot down in cold blood by her own father’s gang.

That’s when Bergen McKeough turned fighting mad — and swore vengeance on Sam Taussig. But he couldn’t help wondering, would Caroline still love him, if he killed her father, even in self-defense?

And not only the outlaw Taussig—a hardcase killer was loose in this full-scale range war—that gave McKeough two ways to die!