The year is 1879. For three years a gang of bushwhackers dubbed the "cross
killers" have murdered and mutilated 26 people throughout the San Juan Mountains of
southwest Colorado.
When the son of Joshua Brand, the most powerful man in the prosperous town of Ella,
becomes victim 27, Brand loses faith that his sheriff, Jeb Moses, can track down the
bushwhackers and hires Pinkerton and bounty hunter Paul Kirk.
Brand and Kirk have a history. They were best friends as boys, and Brand married
Kirk’s sister, Ella, the town’s namesake, these three the children of the
town’s founders.
But, as far as everyone in Ella thought, Kirk was dead. Brand claimed to see Kirk die
at the Battle of Murfreesboro in 1862.
Brand lied. But why? And why is everyone in Ella, even his wife, prepared to forgive
Brand for lying but not for hiring Kirk, who is met with distrust or hostility. And why
didn’t Kirk return to Ella before now, even when his father was hung for murdering
Brand’s father in 1865?
Moses , a reformed outlaw who has only worked in Ella for a few years, would like to
know, but nobody is talking. But he intends to find out, especially after the sheriff
begins to suspect Kirk may be one of the bushwhackers.
HARDCOVER EDITION STILL
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