Paid to mind other folks' business, Joshua Dillard does it with a .45 Colt Peacemaker. In the thick of it is Clement P. Conway from New York City, hack writer of dime novels ? a greenhorn with guts plunging out of his depth. Stirring it along comes Dorothy-May Pennydale, spirited daughter of a whiskey-soaked way-station boss.

The fight leads into treacherous territory, up against rogue marshal Virgil Lyons and saloonkeeper Dice Sanders, whose greed for women and money produces mayhem ... and the most violent gun battle the one-horse town of Hellyer's Creek has ever seen!

"Chap O'Keefe has assembled a terrific set of characters for this Joshua Dillard novel that begins with a stagecoach robbery and then never lets up with action ... Dillard isn't above making mistakes, and after being captured by the stage robbers he's left in a 'how's he going to get out of this situation?' that will keep any reader turning the pages to discover the answer." ? Western Fiction Review