Undercover Marshal

Sometimes the only way to catch a criminal is to be one... The town of Dry Acres is under the oppression of a two-pronged, crooked alliance between jack-of-all-trades Mark Grayson and Sheriff Henry Binalt. Having diverted the watercourse to his own ranch, Grayson has starved the local ranches - including the Dalman's Roaring G spread - of water. And Binalt's high taxes to the homesteaders are starving the people off the land. Fed up of all the corruption, the local newspaper editor, Gil Radford, tries to expose them both but ends up murdered before he can publish his expose. Having witnessed his death, Radford's niece, Ann Dalman, resolves to carry on the fight and calls in the help of his old friend, Blake Carson. While Carson manages to flush out Grayson, Binalt is a harder nut to crack. All Carson can do is run for Mayor in the upcoming town election. Determined to protect his secret interests and continue his illegal stint as Mayor, Binalt hires a notorious gunman to eliminate Carson - the outlaw Jeff Oakroyd. But what Binalt doesn't know is that "Jeff Oakroyd" is already dead at the hands of the law. "Jeff Oakroyd" is in actual fact, Parry Kelby - a US Marshal from Caradoc City investigating the allegations and rumours swirlling about Binalt. As far as Kelby is concerned, Binalt is guilty but he needs proof of his crimes. However, Binalt is a slippery man and at any sign that a US Marshal is sniffing about, he'll destroy anything that implicates him. If Kelby plays this long undercover game right, he might just get all the evidence he needs and in the process, save Carson and the citizens of Dry Acre. Can he fool Binalt long enough to bring him down for good? Based on a short story by the classic Western writer John Russell Fearn, Undercover Marshal is a suspenseful, nail-biter of a novella - perfectly balancing out thrills with blood-pumping action.

Praise for Philip Harbottle

'A classic of the genre' - Tom Casey, bestselling author of Trade Off Born in Wallsend in 1941, Philip Harbottle has published over a dozen novels and edited a great many more. He is the heir and administrator of the literary estate of John Russell Fearn, and working from notes and unpublished manuscripts left by the author, he has posthumously collaborated on a number of westerns. As well as pursuing his own writing, he acts as a literary agent specializing in science fiction, detective and western novels, and his clients include many of the most prolific British and American genre writers.


Genre: Western