Powell’s Army Books In Order

Publication Order of Powell's Army Books

Powell’s Army is a series of western books written by James Reasoner under the penname Terence Duncan. The novels follow Lt. Col. Amos Powell, the leader of an army of fearless firebrands consisting of Gerald Glidinghack, Landrum Davis, and Celia Burnett. The first three novels in the Powell’s Army series were written by Barbara Puechner. Duncan began publication of Powell’s Army series in 1987 when Unchained Lightning, the first book in the series was published. The series lasted eight books concluding in 1989 when Rio Renegades was published.

James Reasoner is American writer of more than 300 books and short stories in a writing career bridging more than three decades. The author has used more than a dozen pseudonyms, in addition to his real name. The author was born in Fort Worth, Texas. His parents moved to Azle TX when he was only two weeks old. Reasoner is a graduate of North Texas State University and married the love of his life when in 1976 and the two had two daughters. Reasoner’s wife also was a fiction writer and has authored more than 25 novels and co-written others with her husband. Early in his career, Terence Duncan did some freelance work for local newspapers, and for several years, he and his wife operated two local bookstores.

Duncan’s primary focus over his writing career has been on fictional narratives of the old west with more than hundreds of his books in this genre. Reasoner has also written historical fiction books set during the American Civil War. Much of the author’s work has involved several books with continuing characters, even though he has authored standalone books as well.

Many of the author’s western novels were purposely written for the established western fictional series for different publishing houses that at times used other writers work on these series, hence the use of “house pseudonyms” for these books determined by the publisher. This body of work includes his writing for Jove (Longarm & Lone Star series), Bantam Books (Cody’s Law series), Pocket Books (Abilene series), and Signet Books (Trailsman series).

In the 1990’s Reasoner wrote six novels as the prequels to Noel’s Gerson’s Wagon West Series. The books offered fictional accounts of the Frontier involving new ideas following the Clark and Lewis journey in the early 1800’s. The novels were part of two trilogies, The Empire Trilogy and The Frontier Trilogy.

Rocky Mountain Showdown

In Rocky Mountain Showdown, a blue ribbon commission must pick a location for a major Army post on the eastern side of the Rockies. If the information falls into the wrong hands, the local land speculator could end up making a killing and speaking of murder, Powell and his Army must prevent any murders when they are sent out on a mission to Denver to offer protection to the commission’s findings.