Ralph Compton Shotgun Charlie

The only thing a man can trust is his gun in this gripping Ralph Compton western....
Big for his age, young and impressionable drifter Charlie Chilton is taken in by the gruff leader of a gang of small-time crooks. While Grady Haskell sees something of himself in kindly, wayward Charlie, the ruffian pushes all feelings aside for a potentially big score.
When Haskell's bold daylight bank job in prosperous Bakersfield turns bloody, Charlie attempts to thwart the heist-and ends up the only gang member caught alive. Sentenced to swing, Charlie makes a daring escape, determined to track down Haskell and prove his innocence.
But with a mysterious marshal and a party of angry townsmen hot on his heels, Charlie must track the killer thieves through a vicious winter storm in the High Sierras-before the seething posse gets the chance to hang him high.
More Than Eight Million Ralph Compton Books In Print!

Ralph Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. He worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist. His first novel, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series.
Matthew P. Mayo is a Western Writers of America Spur Award-Winner and a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and his many novels include the Westerns Winters' War, Wrong Town, Hot Lead, Cold Heart, Dead Man's Ranch, Tucker's Reckoning, The Hunted, and Shotgun Charlie. He contributes to several popular series of Western and adventure novels.