The Marshal of Babylon — Ray Hogan

A Bullet for Mr. Texas

If ever a man asked for enemies, it was Pierce Hagerman, known as “Mr. Texas.” Hated by all who knew him -- including his own young son and beautiful daughter -- the powerful rancher invited murder with every ruthless act he committed. Now a secret killer had been hired to give Mr. Texas what he'd been asking for …
Shawn Starbuck came to Hagerman's ranch, Hash Knife, following the trail of his lost brother Ben, but he stayed to become hired bullet-catcher to the tyrant. It was a stay that would put his heart -- and his life -- on the line, and climax in a blaze of flaming violence.

The Marshal of Babylon

Shawn Starbuck has ridden endless dusty miles through the Southwest searching for his lost brother Ben. Now, on a tip from Wyatt Earp himself, he comes to Babylon, a glittering gambling town where vice and violence flourish unchecked. When Starbuck signs on as town marshal, he vows to bring law and order to the streets of Babylon . . . until a stranger rides in with a message from Ben. Is it a trap -- or does Ben really need him?


Ray Hogan is an author who has inspired a loyal following ever since he published his first Western novel Ex-marshal in 1956. Hogan was born in Willow Springs, Missouri, where his father was town marshal. At five the Hogan family moved to Albuquerque where Ray Hogan lived in the foothills of the Sandia and Manzano mountains. His father was on the Albuquerque police force and, in later years, owned the Overland Hotel. It was while listening to his father and other old-timers tell tales from the past that Ray was inspired to recast these tales in fiction. From the beginning he did exhaustive research into the history and the people of the Old West and the walls of his study were lined with various firearms, spurs, pictures, books, and memorabilia, about all of which he could talk in dramatic detail. Among his most popular works are the series of books about Shawn Starbuck, a searcher in a quest for a lost brother, who has a clear sense of right and wrong and who is willing to stand up and be counted when it is a question of fairness or justice. His other major series is about lawman John Rye, whose reputation has earned him the sobriquet The Doomsday Marshal. ‘I've attempted to capture the courage and bravery of those men and women that lived out west and the dangers and problems they had to overcome,” Hogan once remarked. If his lawmen protagonists seem sometimes larger than life, it is because they are men of integrity, heroes who through grit, character and common sense are able to overcome the obstacles they encounter despite often overwhelming odds. This same grit of character can also be found in Hogan's heroines and, in The Vengeance of Fortuna West, Hogan wrote a gripping and totally believable account of a woman who takes up the badge and tracks the men who killed her lawman husband by ambush. No less intriguing in her way is Nellie Dupray, convicted of rustling in The Glory Trail. Above all, what is most impressive about Hogan's Western novels is the consistent quality with which each is crafted, the compelling depth of his characters, and his ability to juxtapose the complexities of human conflict into narratives always as intensely interesting as they are emotionally involving.