Dave P. Fisher                        
Author & Western Humorist

Double Diamond Books                      
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Ten Men of Courage

 Ten Men of Courage

A Trilogy of the post Civil War era of New Mexico and West Texas

The year 1865 finds ten men drifting westward, each looking for a new beginning.

Reconciled brothers Troy and Jason who wore the opposite colors during the war.

Griffin, Confederate sharpshooter, sees no reason to give up his guns to the Yankees.

Brody and Teague, champion prize fighter, and his promoter flee New York.

Ace and Kip going back to West Texas to claim the inheritance denied them.

Drovers Lon and Hap join with Ace and Kip to back them.

Nacio, ex-bandito, torn between his duty and his shame.

Ten men of courage and honor join their skills together
to rid the high plains of the lawless.

The Ten Men of Courage trilogy is followed up by three companion novels.
Forging the Ten Men

These prequel novels cover the back stories of the ten men, what made them into the men they are.

Forging of the Ten Men - Book 1
Troy, Jason, Griffin, Brody, Teague

Forging of the Ten Men - Book 2
Ace, Kip, Nacio

Forging the Ten Men - Book 3
Lon and Hap

View the video book trailer for the Ten Men of Courage trilogy

Lon, Ace, Hap, Kip - four of the ten


Click on the covers to go directly to their Amazon page

Amazon Best Seller

Book 1 - Into the Jumanes

Was it chance, or destiny, that brought ten men together in the wild country of west Texas? Two brothers from Virginia, one wore blue, one gray; a New York prize fighter and his manager; two young cattlemen returning to claim the inheritance they were denied, and the two friends who came to back them; a Confederate sharpshooter, and a Mexican ex-bandito.  All looking for a new start. All wearing their guns and courage for everyone to see.

The Texas high plains of 1865 knew no law. The Army had pulled out for the Civil War leaving the country open to the law of the strongest, and Amidio Vasquez’s band of renegades ruled. No peaceful village or settlement was safe from Vasquez’s raids. Death and fear were left in his wake, while men, women, and children were stolen away to be sold as slaves to unscrupulous mine owners.

Then came the day Vasquez made a fatal mistake. Contracted by ruthless land baron Mat Travers to bring slaves to his Jumanes Mountains stronghold to work his mines, Vasquez filled the order by raiding a Franciscan mission, seizing the friars and orphaned children living there. That was the day ten men, whose only ties to each other was a Code of Honor, decided it was time to put an end to Amidio Vasquez and reclaim
 the high plains from the lawless.


Amazon Best Seller

Book 2 - Return to the Jumanes

The destruction of Matt Travers’ criminal empire, and the freeing of his captives, reverberated up and down the Rio Pecos. The poverty stricken Mexican villagers, who lived in fear of capture and sale to the slavers, were spreading the word about the ‘Ten Men of Courage’ who were fighting and overcoming this evil.

This word spread into Mexico, to the empire of Vidal Castillo, a maniacal and sadistic tyrant. There three of Vidal Castillo’s mercenary jefés plot his death, but too undermanned to carry out their plans,
they enlist the aid of the Ten.

Later, enroute to Santa Fe, more details about Nacio Fuentes emerge and they find that he is not the man they all thought him to be. While in Santa Fe, and unsure of the outcome of the Red River Ranch situation, Ace and Kip file on the land of the Jumanes Valley guaranteeing that they will have a home to return to. Then, a trip to San Antonio by Kip, Teague and Lon, reveals more about Ben Hawkins and the murder of Kip’s father Arthur Nichols, forcing a confrontation with an unexpected outcome.


Book 3 - Sunrise Over the Jumanes

Ben Hawkins and Gaspar Cruz join forces to overthrow the Loyola Hacienda. As their plans take shape, Ben learns of the Jumanes Valley, the gold mines, and of Ace’s and Kip’s possession of them. Determined to kill Ace and Kip and have the valley, Ben weaves an intricate scheme for wealth and revenge.

As the men are moving Nacio’s cattle from the valley to the hacienda, Cruz and Hawkins take advantage of Nacio’s absence and strike the hacienda with a band of mercenaries. Upon returning, Nacio finds his home in the hands of Cruz, and his mother and sisters gone. Retaking the house, the men find the girls have been abducted, and set off to rescue them.

Later in Santa Fe, Teague discovers Ben Hawkins’ plot to murder Ace and Kip. As the two partners drive a herd of cattle to Santa Fe, unaware of the ambush set for them, their friends converge to back them. The plan goes awry when Ace and Kip arrive a day early, and the shooting begins before the others can get to them.


Forging the Ten Men - Book One
The Prequel to the Ten Men of Courage trilogy

A man of valor is created in the fiery forges of adversity. War, poverty, injustice, and tests of moral courage heat him like a bar of iron, then pound him out on life’s anvil. As with iron, the hammer’s blows reveal weakness or strength; the iron either breaks apart and is worthless, or shapes into something stronger for the fire.

Why would ten men from different walks of life join together to fight against the lawless in a desert wilderness? Because they are men who have passed through the fire and emerged from the anvil with iron in their backbones. They are men who have a stalwart code forged from their experiences and will not abide injustice.

Here are the stories of Troy and Jason Delaney, Griffin Allen, Brody Maguire, and Teague Blackburn. Stories about the war that forged the Delaney brothers and Griffin, the poverty that strengthened Brody, and the integrity and moral courage of Teague. These events shaped and changed their hearts, minds, and souls, and brought them to understand what it is to be a man of courage and valor.

Forging the Ten Men - Book 2

Ben Hawkins, swindler and murderer, lived to profit at the expense of others. Texas cattleman Arthur Nichols was a man everyone trusted. Their partnership in the Red River Ranch brought Arthur’s death, and the culmination of Ben’s plan to take all Arthur had. The only hitch to Ben’s complete success was Arthur’s son Kip, and his own son Leroy (Ace), who were determined to stop him.

Martín Loyola was heir to the vast Loyola hacienda. His wife’s brother, Gaspar Cruz, connived his way into the good graces of the Loyola family. All were blind to his treachery, and ultimate goal of taking the hacienda by eliminating the heirs. The only Loyola who saw through Cruz was Martin’s son Nacio. With Martín’s last breath he whispered to Nacio that Cruz was his killer. When his mother refused to believe him, Nacio stormed away from his home to lead a rebellious life as a bandito.

Ace Hawkins with his hatred of all his father was and determination to be nothing like him; Kip Nichols anger over his loss of all they had built in Texas and his belief that Ben murdered his father; Nacio Loyola in his rage at seeing his family’s legacy stolen by an outsider and the realization that living as a bandito solved nothing: these are the fiery forges that steeled Ace, Kip, and Nacio to be the Men of Courage, who grew to understand that the only way to kill the snake of injustice was to cut off its head.

Forging the Ten Men - Book 3

Lon Caldwell grew up in the itinerant life of his Army Officer father, moving from fort to fort as the Army expanded westward. Caldwells had served as far back as the Revolution, but he hated the military life. At 18, his father insisted Lon go to West Point as he had. He refused. With heated words, Lon rode away.
For years, Lon drifted across the wild lands of west Texas, but it wasn’t until he rode with the Frontier Regiment against the Comanches in defense of the settlers, that he came to understand his father, and his heritage – Caldwells always stepped forward when the line between courage and cowardice was drawn in the sand.

Hap Wickham’s ancestor, Colton, risked his life to take his wife and her family to safety during the British expulsion of the Acadians from their homeland. Colton established the ‘Wickham Standard’: every Wickham man will always defend his family and exact retribution for any harm done to them.
Hap was 16 when his father took a Kansas homestead. At 18, he worked as an outrider guard for Santa Fe Trail freighters. The ‘Bleeding Kansas’ days were looming and when Jayhawkers struck his home with death and destruction, Hap took up The Standard and left ten Jayhawker guerillas dead in the Kansas sand. He rode away that day determined to always kill any man who preyed on the innocent.

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