BLACK RAVEN: Twenty-Seventh in the Series of Jess Williams Westerns (A Jess Williams Western Book 27)
Jess is turning in some dead men for the bounty to the sheriff of Allentown when suddenly a stagecoach rides in. The stagecoach was robbed and one woman, Nancy Shuler, whose husband was killed during the robbery, was kidnapped by the three men responsible. Jess immediately drops everything and goes after the three men and rescues Nancy in the nick of time. <br> <br>On the way back to Allentown, Nancy makes Jess an offer for him to escort her to Stratton, Texas, where she and her husband were headed to. He refuses the job offer and warns her that there has been a lot of Indian attacks taking place between Allentown and Stratton, but she is insistent on making the trip one way or another. <br> <br>Basil Thorndike, the second best bounty hunter next to Jess, shows up and his intention is to kill Jess because Jess is collecting so much bounty money. This is causing a disturbance with the other bounty hunters as well because they, too, haven't been able collect any bounties. Now the other bounty hunters are talking about teaming up to take Jess out of the business. Jess changes Thorndike's mind by offering him one thousand dollars to escort Nancy to Stratton. Before they leave though, his feelings of guilt and his mistrust of Thorndike forces him to go along on the trip to Stratton with Thorndike and Nancy. <br> <br>Things are bad enough, but it gets worse when they come across a half-dead half-breed Apache along the trail and Thorndike has a hatred for Indians since they murdered his family. Jess insists on taking the Apache, Black Raven, to Stratton. He finds out that three men had left Black Raven for dead and kidnapped his half-breed squaw, Little Feather. <br> <br>Once Jess gets Nancy safely to Stratton and keeps Black Raven locked up secretly in the Stratton Hotel, he waits for Raven to recuperate enough for him to travel. When they leave Stratton, Thorndike agrees to join them as long as he gets to keep the bounty money from the three men who kidnapped Little Feather. <br> <br>The hunt to find Little Feather and the three men who took her turns into a nightmare for Jess. He's towing around Black Raven dressed up as a white man and after they find and rescue Little Feather, Raven insists that Little Feather join them on the hunt for the three men who kidnapped her. He finds himself with two half-breed Apache Indians, one dressed like a white man and one dressed like a white woman, along with a bounty hunter who hates Indians and might shoot Jess the first chance he gets.