The Reckoning is the first in a series of western novels by Robert J. Thomas. The main character in the novel is a young boy, Jess Williams, whose family is brutally murdered. Forced to become a man overnight, he vows to avenge his family's savage deaths. He begins to practice with his Pa's Colt .45 and then a stroke of destiny arrives when he discovers a new pistol and holster that mysteriously appears. Jess practices with it relentlessly until he becomes so quick that he is unbeatable on the draw. He leaves home transformed from a boy to a highly skilled shootist with no reason to live except to hunt down and kill each of the three men responsible for the murders. As he begins his journey, he does so with a pistol and holster that no one has ever seen before---and won't again for almost one-hundred years.