William W Johnstone Books in Order

Ben Raines faces criminal gangs disrupting the nation his Rebels helped rebuild after the apocalypse. In northern Maine, an underground group of cannibals presents a threat that brings his campaign for order into particularly dangerous territory.

Clifton Satterlee plans to seize timber-rich land from the Tua Pueblo and build a town with a controlled labor force. Smoke Jensen stands between the robber baron's ambitions and the people threatened by his scheme.

Years after Smoke Jensen wounded him, the gunfighter Sundance returns seeking revenge. With a vicious gang assembled along the Texas-Mexico border, he heads for Sugarloaf to confront the mountain man whose lesson he never accepted.

Smoke Jensen wants a prized steer to improve his Colorado ranch, but a cattle war blocks the way. With rustlers pursuing him, his effort to build Sugarloaf becomes a battle against men determined to stop him.

Ben Raines and his Southern United States face missile attacks from the defeated leaders of the USA. The Rebels retaliate and advance into enemy territory as another struggle for control brings destruction across the continent.

This companion guide covers the first twenty-four Ashes novels, with plot summaries and maps of Ben Raines's campaigns. It also explores his views on government, crime, military affairs, and the society he wants to rebuild.

Ben Raines returns from victories in Africa to an America consumed by renewed conflict. A new president wants him captured or killed for treason, forcing the Rebel leader into another fight for his nation's survival.

Smoke Jensen helps his friend Joe Wales seek revenge against the men who attacked his wife. Outnumbered by the renegades they pursue, the two face a fight that tests their loyalty and determination to settle the score.

Four friends begin a wilderness adventure in Montana's Bitterroot Mountains, unaware that a stranger is watching them. His scheme turns their trip into a deadly contest, leaving the group fighting to survive in isolated country.

Smoke Jensen delivers longhorns to Dodge City and discovers a town terrorized by a powerful outlaw gang. With the local lawman outmatched, Smoke confronts Bloody Bill Anderson in a fight to break the gang's hold.

Falcon MacCallister seeks vengeance for his father's murder and pursues the Noonan gang. His search draws him into Wyoming's range wars and confrontations with dangerous gunmen before he can reach the man he wants.

President Claire Osterman orders the destruction of the Southern United States and its leader, Ben Raines. Facing a powerful opponent determined to end their nation, Raines and his Rebels prepare for another bitter civil war.

Bruno Bottger's germ warfare has unleashed violent chaos among African civilians. Outnumbered by his armed forces as well, Ben Raines and the Rebels face a campaign against both the neo-Nazi army and the devastation it created.

A childhood ritual leaves two children dead and the survivors sharing a terrible secret. Twenty-six years later, brutal murders in Denton, Missouri, reconnect former friends to the crime they thought was buried in their past.

Smoke Jensen leaves Colorado for Wyoming's Johnson County, where vigilantes and rustlers threaten innocent people. Disputes over grazing land have become a private war, forcing him to confront men using violence to control the range.

A confrontation with two ambitious young gunmen makes Falcon MacCallister a hunted man again. With a vengeful posse following him across the Southwest, he must navigate dangerous territory while keeping ahead of pursuers determined to hang him.

Texas outlaw Lazarus Cain targets cattle and horses on Smoke Jensen's Colorado ranch. His theft puts him in conflict with a rancher whose skill with a gun makes Sugarloaf a dangerous place to practice his trade.

A cattle war draws Falcon MacCallister into the violence of New Mexico's Pecos Valley. Encountering Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County conflict, he faces a dangerous choice about trusting an outlaw amid rival ranchers' competing interests.

Falcon MacCallister pursues the outlaws who ambushed a wagon train, accompanied by a young Native American boy. Their search through the Oklahoma Panhandle uncovers greed and betrayal surrounding a new railway entering the lawless territory.

A former CIA agent commands a secret team drawn from law enforcement and intelligence services. Their mission is to stop terrorists preparing biological warfare against the United States, confronting a threat that conventional policing cannot easily contain.

Former CIA agent John Barrone leads an elite strike force against an outlaw biker gang threatening the American Southwest. His team must fight a mobile guerrilla war to stop the gang's expanding control over the region.

Sharpshooter Monte Carson returns stolen army money and earns outlaw Jim Slaughter's fury. When Slaughter holds Monte's wife hostage, Smoke Jensen rides into Jackson Hole to rescue her before the demand for repayment becomes a death sentence.

Marshal Bill Tilghman arrests Smoke Jensen for a murder committed after a confrontation with the Durango Kid. Facing a hanging judge, Smoke must escape custody and track down the thief to uncover who actually killed the victim.

Frank Morgan returns to Colorado seeking the men who killed the woman he loved. Two outlaw gangs terrorize the territory and take his son hostage, turning his pursuit of revenge into a struggle to save his family.

Driven from Colorado and the life he once knew, Frank Morgan drifts into a New Mexico mining town. When two outlaw gangs threaten its people, the gunfighter becomes their defender despite having little of his own left.

Ousted leader Claire Osterman allies with warlord Perro Loco to attack the Southern United States from Mexico. Ben Raines takes his force south, hoping to stop the invasion before the renewed war reaches his own territory.

A billionaire hires John Barrone's strike force after his teenage granddaughter is murdered in a snuff film. The former CIA agent and his team investigate a criminal network whose business combines sexual exploitation with killing.

Ben Raines's Southern United States has secured peace, but the neighboring northern nation remains vulnerable. When warlord Abdullah El Farrar invades and recruits northern citizens, Raines must decide how to defend a country that was once his enemy.

Pursuing outlaws who kidnapped his son, a lone gunfighter discovers an abandoned town in a Rocky Mountain valley. Rumors of a deadly haunting surround the place, but rescuing the captive means confronting enemies who are very real.

Frank Morgan seeks peace but rides into a Montana range war between ranchers and farming families. Both sides suspect the other has hired him, making his reputation a further provocation as he decides whom to defend.

More than thirty escaped prisoners cut a trail of violence through the high country, outrunning the cavalry. Smoke Jensen returns to familiar ground to stop them, unaware that their leader intends to kill him there.

Ben Raines's rebels face attacks from both north and south as President Osterman advances and rival armies unite in Mexico. Defending their desert stronghold requires fighting a war on two fronts against forces equipped with devastating weapons.

A tactical nuclear device has been shipped into the United States, placing John Barrone's secret strike force on an urgent mission. He must infiltrate terrorist organizations and neutralize the weapon before they can use it.

Warlord El Farrar threatens oil reserves with support from the president of the Northern United States. Backed by the Southern United States, Ben Raines leads his army against an alliance whose control of resources could strengthen its power.

Seeking a home in Northern California, Frank Morgan discovers an outlaw with his exact appearance has terrorized the locals. Arrested for the other man's crimes, he must escape and find the killer before mistaken identity gets him hanged.

The young man who will become Preacher leaves Ohio seeking adventure in the West. Captivity, ruthless enemies and the Rocky Mountain wilderness turn his impulsive journey into a struggle to acquire the skills needed for survival.

Frank Morgan's growing fame follows him into Idaho, where wealthy backers finance killers determined to defeat the legendary gunfighter. With his face appearing in newspapers and dime novels, finding somewhere to hide becomes increasingly difficult.

A bounty hunter ignores Smoke Jensen's cleared charges and kidnaps Sally to collect an old reward. Smoke pursues the gang into the Rocky Mountains, racing to save his wife from men motivated by a worthless warrant and greed.

After an old friend's family is massacred, Smoke Jensen enters a Colorado conflict between militia volunteers and Kiowa warriors. His investigation points toward outlaws profiting from illegal weapons and whiskey while encouraging both sides to fight.

A man seeking revenge for his son's death captures Smoke Jensen, intending a public hanging. Escaping with only a knife, Smoke faces twenty armed pursuers and approaching winter in the Colorado wilderness where he learned to survive.

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks brings former CIA agent John Barrone and his secret strike force into action. The team draws on law enforcement and intelligence skills to confront enemies operating beyond the reach of ordinary police work.

Ben Raines survives a plane crash in Canada's Northwest Territory but loses his memory. Stranded and vulnerable to a terrorist organization, the rebel leader must rely on survival skills while struggling to distinguish potential allies from enemies.

A young adventurer joins fur traders leaving St. Louis, seeking his fortune before earning the name Preacher. Conflict with Blackfoot warriors, betrayal and a crippling grizzly attack force him to survive through resourcefulness as well as courage.

Smoke Jensen brings fellow mountain men to protect a railway crossing the Canadian Rockies. An outlaw army attacks its tracks and workers, turning the ambitious construction project into a fight that requires every available defender.

Frank Morgan learns that old enemy Val Dooley is selling girls and young women into prostitution. His pursuit crosses several territories, but Dooley anticipates the gunfighter's intervention and prepares a final opportunity to kill him.

Frank Morgan finds Montana settlers' homes burning at the hands of men hired by powerful ranchers. As the dispute over grazing land and water intensifies, he takes up their defense against mercenaries determined to drive them away.

John Barrone and his strike force pursue a South American drug lord working with foreign extremists. A campaign combining heroin distribution and terrorist attacks threatens the United States, forcing the team to confront the cartel behind it.

After Falcon MacCallister helps Teddy Roosevelt against bandits, Roosevelt asks him to rescue a judge's kidnapped daughter. An outlaw wants her exchanged for his imprisoned brother, and Falcon must act without reliable support from the law.

Mercy Monfore summons wounded Frank Morgan back to Parker County to confront a dangerous gang. With local lawmen opposing him and a Texas Ranger offering help, he also faces a manhunter intent on killing him for fame.

Frank Morgan ignores warnings to avoid the lawless strip that will become the Oklahoma Panhandle. After surviving an ambush, he awakens in a remote cabin and prepares to fight, lacking allies among enemies determined to kill him.

A woman from Preacher's past has been murdered in St. Louis, drawing him away from his Rocky Mountain home. The trapper returns to the city seeking the truth and justice for someone who once mattered to him.

After a plague destroys much of civilization, wilderness-raised Jim LaDoux leaves his isolated cabin in search of hope. Carrying his grandfather Ben Raines's ideals, he encounters survivors whose rival beliefs threaten another struggle over the world's future.

Smoke Jensen leaves an injured friend with a small-town doctor, then discovers a corrupt sheriff has taken him hostage. The lawman uses the captive to lure Smoke into a trap, counting on his refusal to abandon a friend.

Cocaine king Luis Mendoza creates his own country within Colombia after bribing officials into submission. John Barrone's covert strike force receives orders to eliminate him and his cartel, but the new ruler expects an attack and prepares his defenses.

Released from prison, a former Union captain threatens the Texas ranch he once devastated during the Civil War. Smoke Jensen comes to help rancher Richard King defend his land against a killer intent on renewing an old campaign.

Preacher helps a wagon train struggling toward Oregon through winter while Arikara warriors pursue it. As he uncovers the reason for the attacks, the settlers' hidden secrets and a deepening freeze threaten his efforts to bring them to safety.

On the Texas-Mexico border, Frank Morgan becomes caught between rival ranchers terrorized by a raider called the Black Scorpion. As Texas Rangers struggle to restore order, deception and divided loyalties make the real enemies difficult to identify.

A stagecoach ambush kills a young woman whose powerful father has ties to Geronimo and Cochise. Falcon MacCallister pursues the murderers before the killing ignites a wider conflict that could destroy innocent lives across southern Arizona.

Special Forces captain Steve Ireland hunts a terrorist network but discovers that another assassin is eliminating targets before his team arrives. His search for this unseen rival leads toward a secret fighting unit and his own family's past.

After a drug cartel kills his uncle and a neighbor, Vietnam veteran John Howard Stark fights back from his West Texas ranch. Corrupt local authorities and a trained hit man leave him facing powerful enemies with little official help.

Frank Morgan's duel with an assassin leaves an innocent woman wounded and strains his friendship with a Texas Ranger. Seeking to make amends, he joins the Ranger's fight against a range war and outlaws threatening a nearby town.

After his father dies in an attack, reluctant wagon leader Jason Fury guides surviving settlers into Arizona Territory. They establish a town bearing his father's name, and Jason must help defend their new home despite his desire to return east.

Robbers steal Smoke Jensen's identity and leave him facing execution for their crimes. To clear his name, he must survive the hangman and pursue a scattered gang that believes its stolen fortune and freedom are secure.

A violent drug-smuggling gang terrorizes Little Tucson, Arizona, while officials fail to protect the town. Vietnam veteran Tom Brannon organizes a volunteer defense force, but the gang prepares to return and destroy the residents who resisted it.

A Mexican brother and sister hire Preacher to find their family's missing gold and silver in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. A rival treasure hunter brings hired killers into the hills, turning the expedition into a dangerous contest.

Frank Morgan's estranged son needs help building a railroad through New Mexico Territory. Despite killers pursuing him, Frank joins Conrad and a gun-toting woman named Rebel to face hired gunmen and Apache warriors threatening the enterprise.

Sam Two Wolves falls into the hands of a murderous slaver while his blood brother Matt Bodine is in Tombstone. Matt rides to rescue him and the other captives, confronting a trade that depends on chains and violence.

After Frank Morgan kills a cattle baron during an Arizona feud, the dead man's family demands revenge. The surviving rancher also wants him silenced, leaving Frank surrounded by enemies and entangled with the daughter of the man he shot.

A price on Frank Morgan's head sends him after the man responsible and toward revenge for a lost love. Hired killers, masked riders, and a young trick rider needing protection complicate his journey to a Nevada ghost town.

Jason Fury considers leaving the struggling Arizona town named for his father, but Megan McDonald gives him reason to stay. When another attack puts a marshal's badge on his chest, he must defend settlers facing drought and outlaws.

A new silver strike revives Buckskin, Nevada, just as Frank Morgan becomes its lawman. An unwanted militia, an ambitious military commander, and an outlaw gang converge on the town, forcing him to confront threats beyond ordinary frontier crime.

Drought and an unrelenting dust storm push Fury, Arizona, toward collapse while Apache attacks threaten its settlers. As some residents prepare to flee, Jason Fury gathers the men and women willing to fight for their town's survival.

Smoke Jensen takes a contract to drive three thousand cattle, hoping to escape a run of bad luck. A blizzard, an attack on his cowboys, and killers seeking a bounty on his head turn the journey into a struggle.

Frank Morgan enters Yuma Prison undercover to befriend an outlaw who has hidden stolen bank money in Ambush Valley. A planned breakout could lead him to the fortune, but his dangerous companion and pursuing enemies threaten the mission.

A stranger claims ownership of the silver-rich Lucky Lizard mine in the Nevada town Frank Morgan protects. When lawyers sent to settle the dispute are killed before arriving, Morgan investigates whether the claim conceals a more violent scheme.

Drifters Bo Creel and Scratch Morton accept jobs wearing badges in Whiskey Flats, taking on responsibilities they have never tried before. An outlaw gang plans to burn the town, forcing the unlikely lawmen to defend its residents.

Old friends Scratch Morton and Bo Creel drift into Arizona Territory and a conflict between competing stagecoach lines. Both try to impress a widowed owner by defending her business, unaware that the rivalry may conceal a trap.

An outlaw gang attacks Smoke Jensen's ranch, killing a ranch hand and his daughter and kidnapping two visiting women. Its leader demands a deal, but Smoke sets out to locate the captives and confront the killers.

Bo Creel and Scratch Morton receive a gold mine as a reward for helping a wealthy man. Raids soon make ownership dangerous, and the partners must untangle deceptive enemies and new threats before their prize gets them killed.

Smoke Jensen outbids a powerful Colorado cattle baron for a prized bull and earns his hatred. When Smoke's friend Pearlie clashes with the same man, Smoke heads to Santa Clara to confront a rancher hiding a murderous past.

In frontier Los Angeles, Frank Morgan becomes caught in a violent struggle between cattle ranchers and oilmen. He works with a widowed rancher and an ambitious wildcatter to uncover the truth, but another faction changes the stakes.

Brutal killings in northern California's forests inspire rumors of a creature called the Terror of the Redwoods. Frank Morgan investigates the legend while bounty hunters crowd the woods and a timber baron's interests suggest a human trap.

Honoring a dead friend's request, Frank Morgan escorts mail-order brides to Skagway, Alaska. Ambushes, a hazardous sea voyage, and a hostile welcome complicate the journey, while a woman's scheme turns the northern winter into a dangerous ordeal.

Broke drifters Bo Creel and Scratch Morton become deputies under Mankiller's drunken sheriff. Their new jobs grow serious when a clan of killers threatens the Colorado boomtown, leaving the partners to defend frightened citizens against superior numbers.

Smoke Jensen arrives in Nevada to save an old friend from hanging. Their escape draws them into a conflict between railroad robbers and the organization pursuing them, with deadly enemies on both sides blocking their path home.

Smoke Jensen's wife is critically injured when bank robbers strike a Colorado mining town. Armed with a badge and determined to pursue the gang, he follows a dangerous trail toward an ambush in remote Black Canyon.

After surviving Alaska, Frank Morgan encounters an old enemy in western Canada who plans to arm rebels with stolen Gatling guns. A U.S. secret agent joins him as he fights to survive and prevent a wider conflict.

Bo Creel and Scratch Morton guard gold shipments near Deadwood against a vicious gang. When soldiers and a widow are taken hostage, the partners pursue the missing gold and captives through the dangers of a winter storm.

Wanted gunman Jonas Lynch arrives in Fury, Arizona, hoping to leave his bloody past behind. Marshal Jason Fury must decide how to handle him as an enemy seeking revenge and a bounty hunter bring danger to the town.

Outlaws plan to steal the combined gold payrolls of three mines while the sheriff and city marshal argue. Sixkiller conceals his badge and goes undercover to expose the robbers, navigating a town where danger lurks behind every saloon door.

Three lawmen sent to Chico, New Mexico, have been killed, so Sixkiller enters the town posing as a hired gun. Behind its brutal sheriff, land pirates plot to seize the territory and sell it to Mexico.

Confederate soldier Luke Jensen is betrayed while transporting gold and left for dead. Nursed back to health on a Georgia farm, he hopes for a new life, but further violence drives him toward the dangerous work of bounty hunting.

Frank Morgan meets a young gunman who claims to be his son and wants him dead. Investigating the claim leads Frank to a former lover, stolen ranchland, and a Montana range war that divides the two men.

Cherokee lawman John Henry Sixkiller becomes a U.S. marshal after serving through war and policing Indian Territory. Hunting horse thieves and train robbers brings him against dangerous outlaws and an enemy determined to spread fear across the frontier.

Smoke Jensen's former neighbor leaves a Colorado ranch to an inexperienced heir, attracting a ruthless cattle baron. As the newcomer walks into a struggle over the land, Smoke intervenes to protect him from an increasingly violent range war.

Bo Creel and Scratch Morton escort three criminals from Arkansas to Texas for trial. A dangerous woman among their prisoners helps turn the journey into a struggle involving buried treasure, double crosses, and gunfire in their home state.

A judge seeks Sixkiller's help when an executed outlaw's brother threatens vengeance against the court. Sixkiller infiltrates a criminal refuge, where a woman commanding hired killers and another hidden enemy threaten the lawman and his mission.

Smoke Jensen travels to help his friend John Jackson, whose campaign against the Crow follows his wife's murder. Unsure how much of Jackson's brutal reputation is true, Smoke enters a dangerous conflict driven by grief and revenge.

Sixkiller pursues a counterfeiter in San Francisco, but a woman and a Secret Service agent complicate the case. The trail leads into the Sierra Nevada, where a besieged mining town blurs the distinction between criminals and victims.

Luke Jensen cannot collect a bounty after outlaws rob the Rio Rojo bank. Pursuing the stolen money brings an inexperienced young manhunter into his path, leaving Luke responsible for protecting the boy while chasing dangerous criminals.