The Proud Riders — Brian Garfield

If it hadn't been for John Paradise arriving in town the same time as a government payroll amounting to sixty-five thousand dollars in gold, Marshal Jeremy Six might have passed a peaceful Fourth of July weekend.
But the one-armed killer with a reputation of having gunned down fifty-seven men in his time was perched, sphinx-like, on a barstool, “waiting for a friend.”
And Harry Rose, a fat dude from the East, arrived with his entourage in Spanish Flat, gravitated toward the Drover's Rest Saloon “to wait for his partner.”
The talent accumulating in town made the marshal itch. Then as four men were shot dead and the payroll disappeared, Jeremy knew he was refereeing a free-for-all between two bands of professional bandits.

The author of more than seventy books, Brian Garfield is one of USA's most prolific writes of thrillers, westerns and other genre fiction. Raised in Arizona, Garfield found success at an early age, publishing his first novel when he was only eighteen �" which, at the time, made him one of the youngest writers of Western novels in print.
A former ranch-hand, he is a student of Western and Southwestern history, an expert on guns, and a sports car enthusiast. After time in the Army, a few years touring with a jazz band, and a Master's Degree from the University of Arizona, he settled into writing full time.
Garfield is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America and the Western Writers of America, and the only author to have held both offices. Nineteen of his novels have been made into films, including Death Wish (1972), The Last Hard Men (1976) and Hopscotch (1975), for which he wrote the screenplay.
To date, his novels have sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Brian Garfield died on December 29 2018. He and his wife lived in California.