Ralph Compton: Snake Oil Justice

Robert E. Vardeman is a veteran science fiction, fantasy, and media tie-in writer. He is celebrated for his original fiction as well as his licensed fiction, including several Star Trek novels. He also collaborated with Matt Stover on the first God of War novel.

Ralph Compton (1934–1998) stood six-foot-eight without his boots. His first novel in the Trail Drive series, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist before turning to writing westerns. A number of his later works also appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Since his death, a number of works have been published under Compton’s byline, including The Alamosa Trail, Riders of Judgement, The Abilene Trail, The Bozeman Trail, and others.

Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.