Richard Conroy, an avid fan and student of the “Old West,” has turned his passion into an exciting new novel, Devil Rising The Heart of a Gunman. Devil Rising takes readers back to a time in history when lawlessness and violence ruled the land. Aging gunman Jon Stoudenmire, tired of his hard living ways, is on his way to find solace at his vineyard in California. During the journey west, he stops at a raucous mining town far out in the Sonoran Desert. He meets an old friend there, who asks him to stay on as acting Sheriff. Short of ready cash, Jon accepts the job. He soon discovers that a local man, wealthy Englishman Alex Faraday, is on a mission to take over the prosperous outpost. Smitten by beautiful saloon owner Elizabeth Thompson, a target of Faraday's wrath; Jon is pulled deeper into the fight. When a popular county commissioner is brutally murdered, Jon suspects Faraday and the sparks begin to fly. The desert town is shaken to its core when the hard-hitting Sheriff, aided by his legendary anger, attempts to blast the community free from the grips of the vicious Brit and his hired guns.
R.B Conroy is a native of Marion, Indiana. After earning a B.S. degree from Ball State University in 1967 and an M.A. in Counseling from Northeastern Illinois University in 1971, he had two distinguished professional careers in education and finance. He married Cheryl Harper in 1967, and the couple has two daughters and five granddaughters. A fan of the old West since early childhood; after a life changing event in the year 2000, Conroy became an even more devout student of that period. He has traveled the West several times visiting many of the famous towns and outposts of that era in search of new information. Seeking out actual newspaper articles, court records, and eye witness reports from that time span. He is very excited about his recent membership in the Western Writers of America group. "It's a thrill" he says to be part of an organization of such outstanding writers.This is Conroy’s first novel. In his own words, “Jon Stoudenmire is a likeable, but violent gunman in the old West. He is also very conflicted. I attempt to explore his inner demons by showing the reader how a basically decent man can cross the threshold to take another man's life. The fast moving story combines hard hitting action with humanity by interspersing scenes of friendly bantering between Jon and his cohorts with scenes of great violence. The rough and tumble gunman also shows a soft side when he falls in love with the beautiful saloon owner Elizabeth Thompson. Like so many of the actual gunmen of that era, he is a charming and complex man, often blurring the line between right and wrong and good and evil in his pursuit of justice.” Conroy plans to write a sequel to Devil Rising. “I am interested to see if my readers will want to see more of big Jon Stoudenmire. I hope they will!”
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