Dead Broke, Colorado

Welcome to Dead Broke, Colorado. Where all that glitters is not gold—it’s silver. Where miners and grifters get rich or go broke. And where the money flows like blood . . .

JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. COLORADO OR BUST.


The town got its unusual name when a pair of brokedown prospectors accidentally dropped a stick of dynamite in the Rockies—and unwittingly unearthed a massive vein of silver. One of the two men dropped dead from excitement. The other one named the place “Dead Broke” in honor of his dead broke companion and declared himself mayor of a brand-new mining town. Mayor Allane Auchenleck—better known as Nugget—put Dead Broke on the map. But when the silver market takes an unexpected nosedive, the bustling boomtown goes bust . . .

And all hell breaks loose.

Almost overnight, Dead Broke turns into a lawless hotbed of angry out-of-work miners and out-for-blood merchants. In desperation, Mayor Nugget considers a few hairbrained schemes like bringing in mail-order brides, building ice castles to attract tourists, even planting other minerals in the mines to fool investors. But Dead Broke needs law and order, so Nugget sends for top gun Mick MacMicking. Of course, a notorious gambler named Connor Boyle has other plans—and with his band of hired guns he plans to blow Dead Broke off the map to get what he wants.

For this town to survive, Nugget, Mick, a drunken lawman, and a woman gambler will have to put the dead back in Dead Broke . . . and some cool-hand killers in the ground.

William W. Johnstone is the #1 bestselling Western writer in America and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of hundreds of books, with over 50 million copies sold. Born in southern Missouri, he was raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and tutored by his schoolteacher mother. He left school at fifteen to work in a carnival and then as a deputy sheriff before serving in the army. He went on to become known as "the Greatest Western writer of the 21st Century." Visit him online at WilliamJohnstone.net.

J.A. Johnstone learned to write from the master himself, Uncle William W. Johnstone, who began tutoring J.A. at an early age. After-school hours were often spent retyping manuscripts or researching his massive American Western History library as well as the more modern wars and conflicts. J.A. worked hard and learned, later going on to become the co-author of William W. Johnstone’s many bestselling westerns and thrillers. J.A. Johnstone lives on a ranch in Tennessee and more information is at WilliamJohnstone.net.