Jack Wright and His Electric Stage; Or, Leagued Against the James Boys

In this rollicking 19th-century adventure, electricity is the new frontier and young inventor Jack Wright has built a fortune from it. When Jesse James and his gang escape Sheriff Timberlake on a speeding train, they set their sights on Wright's wealth, plotting to rob the man whose electric machines make him the richest target in the West. What follows is a breathless cat-and-mouse game: outlaws against inventors, bullets against batteries, the old lawlessness versus a new technological age. Jack's "electric stage" becomes both his fortune and his target as the James boys scheme to exploit his generosity. The novel pulses with the thrill of technological wonder colliding with frontier violence, capturing a moment when Americans believed electricity could power anything, even justice itself. For readers who love old-school adventure with a hint of proto-science fiction, this is a forgotten gem that shows what the future looked like to Victorians.