Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Peacemaker | 1988 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 2 | The Sharpshooter | 1988 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 3 | The Pursuers | 1988 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 4 | The Night Riders | 1988 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 5 | The Half-Breed | 1988 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 6 | The Hangman | 1989 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 7 | The Prizefighter | 1989 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 8 | The Whiskey Runners | 1989 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 9 | The Tracker | 1989 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 10 | The General | 1989 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 11 | The Hellion | 1989 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 12 | The Cattle Baron | 1990 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 13 | The Pistoleer | 1990 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 14 | The Lawman | 1990 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 15 | The Barlow Brides | 1990 | James Reasoner | Buy |
| 16 | The Deputy | 1990 | James Reasoner | Buy |
James Reasoner wrote all sixteen Abilene books between 1988 and 1990, a pace that meant readers were getting new installments every few months. The series kicked off with The Peacemaker and kept going through titles like The Sharpshooter, The Night Riders, and The Hangman, each one named after a character type or frontier figure. That naming style gives you a good sense of what to expect: classic Western fiction set in and around the Kansas cattle town.
The first five books landed in 1988, six more followed in 1989, and the final five came out in 1990. Titles like The Whiskey Runners, The Cattle Baron, and The Barlow Brides suggest a range of storylines within the Western genre, from lawmen and outlaws to family drama. Reasoner is one of the more prolific Western writers of his generation, and the Abilene series is a good example of his ability to turn out a long-running sequence without losing steam.