Blaze! Western Books in Order

Blaze! flips a classic western setup in a smart, punchy way. The fastest guns on the trail are J.D. and Kate Blaze, a husband-and-wife team who love each other, ride hard, and solve frontier problems with a blend of nerve, grit, and very fast shooting.

The marriage is not a side note, it is the engine.

In the opening novel, the Blazes survive an Apache ambush and then go after outlaws led by the dangerous Rosa Diablo. That tells you a lot about the line in one shot. These books like movement, pursuit, colorful villains, and sudden reversals. They are westerns, but they are westerns built to move quickly and hit their hooks hard.

Arizona Territory is a strong fit for them. The dry country, border trouble, rough towns, stage routes, and isolated stretches of desert give the stories room for both straight action and slightly stranger turns. Zombies Over Yonder shows that Mertz is perfectly willing to bend the formula when it suits him, bringing in weird-west fun without losing the basic appeal of the Blaze pair. The Christmas Journey goes a different direction and uses the season as a frame for a hard ride full of danger, desperate people, and frontier justice.

What keeps it all working is the partnership. J.D. and Kate do not just trade dialogue and take turns shooting. They feel like a true unit. They banter, they back each other up, and they make the emotional center of the series as clear as the action center. Even when the plots get larger than life, that relationship keeps the books grounded.

If you want westerns with pace, swagger, and two leads who are just as interesting together as they are in a gunfight, Blaze! is easy to recommend. These stories are adventurous, a little rowdy, and never shy about giving readers a strong hook.