When it came to killing, nobody dealt out death like John Ryker. Onetime gunsmith, now turned deadly bounty hunter, his message was lethal — and he knew it. When Wes Gantry beat up Ryker's woman, he made a big mistake. Ryker wanted blood and he'd stop at nothing to gun Gantry into the ground. And besides, his Colt forty-five Peacemaker – the bloodiest tool in the West – needed to see some action...

GUNS ARE RYKER'S BUSINESS. SO IS KILLING...

John Ryker was a gunsmith. One of the best at a time when speed and skill with a shooting iron were as vital to survival as food in your belly.

Then one day Ryker sold a man a gun—a Deringer—that later killed a President. That incident set Ryker on a vengeance trail of blood and conflict that would test his gun-skill to its farthest limits. And so the gunsmith became a killer – one whose professional mastery of the West's armory of death-dealing firepower made him the deadliest around ...

John Ryker was just about the best all-round gunfighter in the West. Rattler-fast on the draw, he was also an ace gunsmith. His gun- skill made him the most lethal one-man slaughter force in a violent land.
So when Ryker got involved with a Gatling gun - one of the first machine-guns that were going to change the nature of warfare out of all recognition - it was a fair be that a lot of lead was going to fly. And a lot of Ryker's enemies were going to get dosed with death. In fact, it was more than a fair bet. It was a surefire certainty . . ..

John Ryker. Gunsmith. And killer. Expert in every angle of slaughter – from the workings of a firing-pin to the effect of a slug on a man's gut.
In a small desert town Ryker made an enemy of Quartermain, the English hunter whose fancy accent hid a surging lust for blood. And it was out on the burning sand, in search of human bounty, that the two of them were headed for a death-run. The gunsmith and the dude suddenly ran up against Ciego, brutal, hate-filled chief of the Apaches. Quartermain was out to kill the Gunslinger. Ciego meant lingering death for any white man he found. And Ryker – he was death for just anyone at all...

It was a savage, snowbound Arizona mountain winter when Ryker's old enemy, banker Goldburgh, came to him and told him his daughter had gotten herself kidnapped by the murderous Brennan gang. Ryker wasn't about to help him, even for a 12,000 dollar reward. But the gunslinger soon had something against the Brennans when they broke his right arm. That's when Ryker got himself a scattergun - the kind you don't need to aim carefully to cut a man in half. Now the Brennans were going to pay. And Arizona was going to see a lot of blood in the snow.

John Ryker was just about the most lethal one man slaughter force in the violent West. An ace gunsmith and professional bounty hunter, no one knew more about death than Ryker.

So when Matthew Tennant was gunned down by a stranger sporting a Smith & Wesson Russian, Ryker soon found himself out on the trail in search of Tennant's killer.

Tennant's widow had offered $5,000 if Ryker could find the right man, and it was a surefire certainty that when Ryker found him a lot of lead was going to let fly ...

John Ryker was no ordinary gunfighter. He was the best. Ace gunsmith, deadly bounty hunter and ice-cool killer all in one, his lethal gun-skill made him the most feared death-dealer in the violent West.
When a rich Californian businessman offered Ryker big money for a few weeks' work, chances were he was going to have to earn it the hard way. The only way he knew. Which meant that lead was going to fly and corpses pile up. And Ryker's most powerful rifle, the fifty-caliber Sharps—which could kill with accuracy from a mile's distance—was going to see a lot of action.

In the West that Ryker knew, life was cheap. Only from death could a man like Ryker make a living—gunsmith turned gunslinger, he was the best killer around, a craftsman in his cruel trade.
When Ryker arrived at the little border town of Braco, the people whispered 'gunhawk'. Only Caleb Marsh knew his real job in the wild country of the Rio Grande. It was to protect Marsh's stage line and—though no one knew it—the men and women of Braco from an enemy who reveled in murder and torture. A wild ex-Confederate colonel who wielded a death-dealing LeMat pistol, half revolver, half shotgun, and whose aim was to massacre every Yankee he could find. Ryker was the man to stop him—but it would take a score of killings and a river of blood ...

John Ryker was a gunsmith. One of the best in the West. But now circumstances had forced him to become a bounty hunter too. And his gun-skill made him the most lethal one-man slaughter-force around. Emiliano Muerta didn't know just how deadly Ryker was when he arrogantly ordered him to create the fanciest handgun ever made just to satisfy Muerta's vanity. And when Muerta tried to welch on the deal, he didn't know the savage and violent price Ryker would make him pay for his treachery...