Charles Ray Books in Order

Rusty Rhodes pauses his pursuit of a bank robber after finding a young man beaten near the Mojave Desert. Returning Billy Tate to Sundown brings questions about the mayor's men and the reason they left him to die.

The family’s Texas journey reaches its third installment as the promise of settlement meets the difficulties of frontier life. Continuing the shared story, it follows the pursuit of land, opportunity and a lasting home despite danger and obstacles.

In 1864, Confederate troops advance toward Washington while Lew Wallace gathers an inexperienced Union force at Monocacy Junction. Outnumbered and burdened by strained relations with Grant, he attempts to delay an army threatening the nation's capital.

Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith follow a killer into California, where he has joined a gang hiding in the hills near Truckee. The sheriff asks them to capture the whole group, leaving the pair facing overwhelming numerical odds.

Ajani rises from slavery to command war elephants in Hannibal's army, only to be captured and forced into a Roman gladiatorial arena. His success and a powerful woman's affection make survival depend on escaping those determined to possess or destroy him.

Missing prospectors send J.D. Pettit undercover near El Paso, where even a fellow Ranger may be compromised. Connections with hired guns and a powerful mining family draw him deeper into a conspiracy that makes trust increasingly dangerous.

Retired Texas Ranger Luke Bronson hunts a notorious outlaw gang while sixteen-year-old J.D. Pettit pursues a white stallion. When theft brings their paths together, the veteran and the young horseman discover their separate quests are closely connected.

In a future America, a newly elected president and his allies approach permanent control of government. Columnist Alan Fortune's warnings cost him his job, but his move to an online publication makes him an even more dangerous target.

Rusty Rhodes interrupts a fugitive hunt to help an elderly scientist who has been beaten and robbed. Discovering that their troubles are connected, the two join forces with a cantina owner to confront the danger around Cebolla.

A pursuit takes Rusty Rhodes to Nicodemus, where Black settlers are struggling to keep their new homes. Before capturing his fugitive, he decides to help the community resist a land speculator who has hired gunfighters to drive them away.

While pursuing rustlers, Bass Reeves and Henry Lone Tree encounter a woman escaping a settlement controlled by the Reapers. Captured themselves, the lawmen must find a way out and decide how to free the group's other prisoners.

A railroad promoter arrives in Plata with hired gunmen and a plan to buy land for a new line. When ranchers refuse to sell, Marshal Boone Collins must confront the violence hiding behind promises of prosperity.

Outlaws near Plata are kidnapping residents to sell across the Mexican border. Marshal Boone Collins assembles a posse and follows the captives south, confronting a lawless border town where rescuing them means facing dangerous enemies on unfamiliar ground.

Alan Fortune continues exposing the dangers of President Leland Case's administration as a wealthy enemy receives a pardon and seeks revenge. Threats against his colleagues and loved ones force Fortune to question how far he will go to resist corruption.

Assigned undercover duty in Muscogee, Bass Reeves recruits Henry Lone Tree to investigate a troublesome band of newcomers. Their disguises reveal that the group's plans extend beyond ordinary mischief, leaving the two friends to uncover and confront a larger threat.

Rusty Rhodes tracks train robbers and stolen gold to a California mountain town, where a crooked banker plans to buy the bullion. An elderly prospector offers help, but together they still face five dangerous outlaws on difficult ground.

An injured sheriff brings J.D. Pettit to Daingerfield to assist a deputy. Two young lovers have revived a family feud dating to Texas’s earliest days, leaving the lawmen to prevent pride and violence from consuming the town.

Newly qualified lawyer Eustis Tucker settles in Beeville, Texas, and receives a murder defense that could end at the gallows. An unscrupulous prosecutor and hostile jury force him to stretch his limited experience to protect his client.

A wanted man leads Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith to a Nevada mining town torn apart by rival owners. Learning their quarry has become a hired gun, they organize the frightened residents against the violence surrounding them.

Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith enlist Caleb and Flora to hunt a murderer and bank robber. Their alliance fractures over Jacob’s preference for killing fugitives, forcing Caleb to reconcile cooperation with his rejection of vigilante justice.

Born in East Texas near the end of World War II, Ray grew up amid Jim Crow restrictions. His memoir follows a path shaped by an early love of reading, an independent grandmother and a determination to define himself.

A threatening letter sends Bass Reeves searching for the person who wants him dead. With Henry Lone Tree and an aspiring deputy, he investigates outlaw camps and would-be settlers while trying to bring his enemy in alive.

Rusty Rhodes postpones his journey home to pursue a bank robber who has killed several men. The chase carries him across hostile country to Marysville, California, where unfamiliar challenges make him question whether he can finish the job.

Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith pursue the murderer of a family after its youngest child survives. Their trail reaches a mining town dominated by a ruthless owner, forcing them to confront his gunmen before they can secure justice.

J.D. Pettit’s overnight stop in Palestine becomes a murder investigation when a gambler is shot before a major poker tournament. Pressured to solve the case quickly, he and the marshal face abundant suspects and almost no evidence.

A Union veteran arrives in Plata searching for a Confederate officer implicated in a wartime massacre. Marshal Boone Collins sympathizes with his grief but must prevent revenge from becoming murder, balancing the demands of law against an unresolved crime.

Vince Logan moves his cattle-rustling gang from West Texas into Indian Territory, expecting a fresh base of operations. Bass Reeves and Henry Lone Tree stand in the way, determined to bring the newcomers to justice despite difficult odds.

Travelling to spend winter with Flora’s people, Caleb and Flora stop in a new town controlled by an ambitious mayor and his hired guns. An attempt to abduct them turns their brief stay into a confrontation with the town’s brutal ruler.

Caleb and Flora pursue a stranger who murders an old man and burns his home. Their chase across Colorado ends in a box canyon, where Caleb must outwit a trapped killer while resisting the easier option of shooting him.

Cattle theft and a looming ranchers’ feud bring J.D. Pettit and three Rangers to Rusk. As they work to restore order, resentment from an older subordinate threatens to undermine Pettit’s authority and complicate two already difficult cases.

Marshal Lucas Dalton hopes to retire and pass his badge to his half-Shoshone deputy, Thad Johnson. After a bank robbery leaves an outlaw's brother dead, the two must prepare for revenge before Lucas can leave Mesa behind.

Bass Reeves and Henry Lone Tree pursue Texas bank robbers into the hills of Indian Territory. Cornering their quarry at Razorback Ridge brings little relief, because cattle rustlers are also stalking the lawmen and closing in.

After Bear Creek’s bank is robbed, Caleb and Flora agree to track the thief. An arrogant former army scout joins the pursuit for reasons beyond a reward, complicating the effort to bring their quarry back for trial.

San Remo appears peaceful until Rusty Rhodes discovers a cattle rancher preparing to attack three sheep ranchers. Their refusal to use violence leaves them vulnerable, and Rusty decides to help them stand against the cattleman's hired guns.

Bass Reeves and Henry Lone Tree pursue bank robbers into the Cherokee Hills with a small posse. The Clearwater Gang's hidden refuge is difficult enough to reach, but unexpected assistance to the outlaws complicates the lawmen's attempt to capture them.

A stranger arrives in Bear Creek looking for reclusive Micah Gordon, alarming the town marshal. Caleb and Flora help locate the missing man, only to discover that the greatest danger may come from unresolved events in the past.

Marshal Boone Collins wakes with an unexplained sense of approaching danger just as a stranger dressed in black arrives in Plata. Unable to identify or locate the visitor, Boone searches for the connection behind his growing unease.

Beeville lawyer Eustis Tucker accepts a lucrative assignment to find an elderly woman’s missing grandson. His search takes him to Houston’s river port, where unfamiliar dangers demand more ingenuity and luck than his legal training prepared him to use.

Following a confidence man to Comston, Rusty Rhodes learns that a nearby gang plans to rob the bank and assay office. The town marshal needs help, and a promised reward persuades Rusty to defend a community with few protectors.

Near Christmas, Rusty Rhodes finds shelter with a struggling farm family whose injured father cannot work. Moved by their generosity, he delays his fugitive hunt to help them celebrate, a task complicated by four local bullies.

Rome turns its ambitions toward the gold-rich kingdom of Kush, expecting another easy conquest. After her husband's death in battle, the one-eyed warrior queen Amanirenas takes command of a people determined to resist the empire's advance.

Caleb and Flora's visit to her home village brings an unexpected reunion with Ben Winthrop's family. When raiders abduct Ben's sons and several Shoshone boys, old friends and local warriors unite in a pursuit driven by fear and anger.

After a failed bank robbery, Sam Hill's gang hides in Indian Territory. Bass Reeves and a rival deputy compete for their capture, while Henry Lone Tree helps Bass use local knowledge to track the fugitives into the Cherokee Hills.

A mysterious visitor arrives in Plata to kill two men who helped Marshal Boone Collins imprison a notorious land speculator. With the speculator pardoned and seeking revenge, Boone must protect the witnesses and confront a threat the law has released.

An ambush leaves Marshal Boone Collins stranded in the desert without his horse, weapons, or supplies. An Apache hermit offers help, and their pursuit of a murderer leads toward a forbidden valley and an unexpected friendship.

Bass Reeves and Henry Lone Tree travel across Indian Territory to arrest a petty thief, unaware he has arranged an ambush. Outlaws pursue them as they struggle to keep their prisoner and reach the jail alive.

Returning from a winter with Flora’s people, Caleb and Flora find a timber baron planning a major lumber operation near Bear Creek. His need for their woodland and Caleb’s refusal to allow logging put them on a path toward violence.

Caleb and Flora follow bank robbers from Bear Creek to a hidden settlement used as an outlaw base. Outnumbered but determined to stop further raids, they prepare a dangerous night attack with the unlikely help of their animal companions.

Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith track the Blocker brothers to a remote canyon with a sinister reputation. Determined to bring the bank robbers and murderers in, they continue into the forbidding landscape despite warnings that it is cursed.

Boone Collins takes a break from his marshal's duties to hunt in the mountains, where he encounters two suspicious men. Their attempt to ambush him turns his holiday into a pursuit that tests his instincts and priorities.

Rusty Rhodes pursues bank robbers into Wyoming and discovers they have taken a rancher's son hostage. His effort to bring the boy home places a family in danger as the outlaws follow and prepare for a standoff.

Tracking a murderer south brings J.D. Pettit to Beeville, where lawyer Eustis Tucker is handling a connected case. Their investigations expose another dangerous man, forcing the Ranger and attorney to combine their skills to carry out their duties.

Rusty Rhodes finds an unconscious Navajo girl fleeing people who intend to kill her. Helping Ayita reach a mission school draws him into conflict with her pursuers and three outlaws, testing the determination of two unlikely allies.

A small rancher facing financial ruin gives bored young lawyer Eustis Tucker the difficult case he wants. The opposing landowner’s actions appear legal, but Tucker suspects a scheme and investigates before his client loses everything.

A young Baltimore man hires Caleb to teach him wilderness skills, giving the restless mountain man a reason to return to the high country. An encounter with three desperate outlaws tests both Caleb’s experience and his new pupil’s resourcefulness.

A railroad worker's murder draws Bass Reeves and Henry Lone Tree into a hunt for a ranch hand. Capturing the suspect leaves another challenge: protecting their prisoner from the dead man's friends, who want revenge before the law can act.

Two scientists searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold attract outlaws hoping to profit from their discoveries. When one researcher is kidnapped, Marshal Boone Collins races into the hills before the captors decide their prisoner is expendable.

Widow Lily Mason settles in a secluded valley near Caleb and Flora Johnson. When rumors of witchcraft turn Bear Creek residents against her, the couple must protect their new neighbor from a community driven by fear.

Helping a London detective pursue an English fugitive, Bass Reeves discovers women being transported to a trafficking gang. When the wanted man joins those captors, Bass and Henry Lone Tree must combine an international manhunt with a dangerous rescue.

An aging former cavalryman is accused of participating in a murder years earlier. Eustis Tucker takes his defense and uncovers a case tangled in prejudice, disputed memories, and revenge, with his client’s life depending on the truth.

A Texas cowhand fleeing hired gunmen finds refuge and work in Plata after organizing fellow workers for better conditions. When his pursuers arrive claiming powerful backing, Marshal Boone Collins refuses to surrender him and prepares for a showdown.

Texas Ranger J.D. Pettit goes undercover with Garland's baseball team after its star pitcher is murdered. With many suspects and a championship approaching, he must recover his athletic skills while finding a killer inside the sporting world.

Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith arrive in Yosemite Valley and rescue a young man from attackers. The intervention draws them into an inherited family feud that divides the valley, interrupting their bounty work with a dangerous effort to restore peace.

Tracking two outlaws through remote foothills, Jacob Blade and Penny Coppersmith encounter a hidden community led by an intimidating woman. Her authority and dangerous resolve threaten to derail the pursuit and make their original quarry seem less formidable.

A fugitive hunt near Fort Whipple is complicated by reports of a mysterious red ghost. Rusty Rhodes dismisses the stories until physical evidence suggests a large creature is roaming nearby, prompting him to investigate before resuming his pursuit.

A robbed freight driver tells Boone Collins that his stolen cargo contains medicine urgently needed by children at a remote mission. Ignoring jurisdictional boundaries, the marshal follows a ruthless gang through desert and mountains on a desperate rescue mission.

Bass Reeves leads a small party into the Chickasaw Nation after Wiley Bear and his cattle-rustling gang. The outlaws have found a concealed canyon, forcing Bass and Henry Lone Tree to locate a refuge with few clues to guide them.

Two young lovers flee families locked in a longstanding feud, prompting the woman’s father to allege kidnapping. Eustis Tucker defends the young man and confronts grievances older than himself as the families’ conflict threatens another generation.

Caleb becomes trapped by a blizzard while hunting winter meat in the mountains. At their cabin, Flora grows increasingly worried and sets out to find him, leaving both to face wilderness dangers as they try to reach each other.