Praise for Call of the Gun:

“Call of the Gun is an exciting tale of greed and power swirling around a .45 Colt Peacemaker with carved ivory grips. The gun moves from the hands of a killer and a frightened boy to a sheriff determined to do his duty. A mysterious mountain man and a U.S. Marshall fight to break the chain of deaths following the shining Colt.”

— A.H. Holt, author of Silver Creek, Kendrick, Riding Fence, Blanco Sol and Blood Redemption

“Dunlap uses his passion for history and the Old West to paint a realistic setting for his work. The prose is good without being heavy, and the story has a good pace that readers will enjoy. For those who share his love affair with gamblers, scalawags, and claim-jumpers with gold fever, this fun novel will keep you guessing.”

— The Indianapolis Star

One hot summer evening in 1877, the residents of a small Colorado mining town watched in horror as an upstart gunslinger named Creeg Bedloe deliberately goaded an unsuspecting young Mexican into drawing on him, resulting in the man’s being cut down in one smoky blast from Bedloe’s deadly six-shooter. His death would be but the first in a long line of bloody encounters involving a very special, uniquely-designed .45 caliber Colt Peacemaker that would pass fatefully from one hand to another, and invariably with each transition, someone would end up dead.

From its first owner to its last, the Colt became the instrument of destruction favored by men who were spellbound by the power it held over them, almost as if they drew strength from the nickel-plated revolver with the carved ivory grips. U. S. Marshal “Ivory John” Morgan is driven to break the spell of the Colt, and overcome those who view dealing death as their calling.

Phil Dunlap has had a lifelong affair with the history and characters of the old west. Often drawn to a haunted land where ghosts of gunfighters, scalawags, gamblers, dance hall girls, and victims of gold fever still float among the cacti, he revels in revisiting that bygone era as a novelist, the next best thing to living it.

Phil lives near Indianapolis with his wife Judy.

Call of the Gun is his second book for AVALON.

Avalon Westerns by Phil Dunlap
CALL OF THE GUN

The Marshal Piedmont Kelly Western Series
BLOOD ON THE RIMROCK
FATAL REVENGE
THE DEATH OF DESERT BELLE