My latest, TUCKER’S RECKONING, is up for sale today. It’s a novel I wrote for the Ralph Compton line and I’m pleased with how it turned out. It was also chosen by the publisher as the first-ever hardcover for the Compton line. Here’s what they have to say in the press about it:
TUCKER’S RECKONING
(a Ralph Compton Western) by Matthew P. Mayo.
New American Library (NAL); Hardcover; $19.95.
The first hardcover in the USA Today bestselling series. This book, written by Matthew P. Mayo (who was a 2010 finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Short Fiction) continues with the same high standards and compelling plots that Ralph himself wrote.
The story:
Since losing his wife and daughter, Samuel Tucker has wandered, drunk and bereft of a reason to go on. Now, in Oregon’s Rogue River region, far from his native Texas, Tucker secretly watches as two men gun down a third. After they leave, he takes the dead man’s pistol and makes it to the next town.
There, he learns the identity of the murdered man: Payton Farraday, a well-liked local rancher—and the second Farraday shot to death within the last two years. He also becomes a suspect in the shooting. But Emma Farraday, the victim’s niece, believes in his innocence—and the two must reveal the machinations of some wealthy and powerful men to prove it. If they don’t, Emma could lose the ranch and Tucker could lose his life—just when he’s found a new reason to live….