In 1908, a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide. The man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father's name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide but to murder.

"Descended from a long line of ramblers and rogues, Jack Picaro came to America to seek his fortune. But after killing his best friend in a drunken duel, the apprentice gunsmith flees westward, leaving everything he knows behind. As Jack ventures up the Missouri River, he finds an unspoiled land where a man can live free - and also be attacked by an Arikara war party. His rifle stolen in the bloody skirmish, Jack sets out alone to reclaim it. His...

Ten years have passed since Jack Picaro lost his Ghost Rifle--the firearm he invented, the one that never missed its target. The loss of the rifle calmed the hellraiser in his soul. Instead of returning to the gambling halls and whiskey bars of St. Louis, Jack has spent the last decade as a fur trapper in Wyoming's Wild River Range, married to Sky, the daughter of an Arikara war chief.

"Readers will learn about Samuel Colt, the revolver, and mass production"--Provided by publisher.

The bayou of Baton Rouge, a place where the weather is hot, the humidity s off the charts and the characters are larger-than-life. And it s a place that Will Hayden fits right in. Why? Because Will, with the help of eldest daughter Stephanie, runs Red Jacket Firearms, the nation's most unique weapons business.

In P.O. Ackley: America's gunsmith, author Fred Zeglin's years of extensive research highlight not just the history of cartridge and rifle development, but an insider's look at a humble man who influenced nearly everything we know about shooting and ballistics today. P.O. Ackley's ideas om reloading, rifle accuracy, barrel making, cartridge choice, and wildcats are just as relevant for modern "gun cranks" as they were in Ackley's heyday. Zeglin delivers...