Benedict and Brazos 2

Trouble was brewing in the town of Harmony, among the gun-toughs who manned the Two-Bar ranch, the hard cases who hung around the Rawhide Saloon, and the beleaguered miners out at Whipple Creek. Into this explosive situation rode Hank Brazos and Duke Benedict. With a thin bankroll, they were looking to earn some fast money to continue their hunt for a Civil War guerilla who’d killed their comrades and stolen a fortune in Confederate gold, a fortune they themselves planned to get their hands on.

So Brazos pinned on the sheriff’s badge in return for a hundred dollars a month, and soon found himself taking his responsibilities more seriously than he’d thought possible!

Across a poker table, meanwhile, Benedict ran into an old acquaintance named Doc Christian. They were rivals, these two gambler-gunmen. And frankly, Benedict had no idea where Doc fit into the various warring factions. When the chips were down, however, Benedict and Brazos found themselves in the thick of a fiery showdown, with just about every gun-filled hand turned against them!

E. Jefferson Clay was just one of many pseudonyms used by New South Wales-born Paul Wheelahan (1930-2018). Starting off as a comic-book writer/illustrator, Paul created the Panther and the Raven before moving on to a long and distinguished career as a western writer. Under the names Emerson Dodge, Brett McKinley, E. Jefferson Clay, Ben Jefferson and others, he penned more than 800 westerns and could, at his height, turn out a full-length western in just four days.

The son of a mounted policeman, Paul initially worked as a powder monkey on the Oaky River Dam project. By 1955, however, he was drawing Davy Crockett, Frontier Scout. In 1963 he began his long association with Australian publisher Cleveland Pty. Co. Ltd. As prolific as he was as a western writer, however, he also managed to write for TV, creating shows like Runaways and contributing scripts to perennial favorites like A Country Practice. At the time of his death, in December 2018, he was writing his autobiography, Never Ride Back, which was also the title of his very first western.