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*WINNER! 2024 Oklahoma Book Award*

Stripped of opportunity by the Great Depression, educated and ambitious Liam takes a low-paying job with the Federal Writers' Project, assigned to collect stories of rural life for the Library of Congress in a hot, poverty-stricken Dust Bowl town in Oklahoma. He'll take his government check, write the stories, and wait for better times. Then Liam meets a woman who upends all his plans.

Eden Sawyer may be poor, but she's hardworking and determined. She has dreams; more than that, she has talent. As Liam interviews her, he discovers that Eden longs to be an artist, and has the skill to do it, if only she can break the cycle of poverty that traps her.
Eden leads Liam to an unexpected, unimagined love. But as he interviews more townspeople, Liam's probing questions steer him into danger, threatening to reveal untold secrets, unsolved mysteries, and unfulfilled passions. Will one man's simmering jealousy and thwarted ambition bring Liam and Eden's story to an abrupt and deadly end?

Dr. Sheldon Russell is the author of thirteen books and is perhaps best known for his Hook Runyon mystery series. His work has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction, as well as the Langum Prize for Historical Literature. He's received starred reviews in both Booklist and Publishers Weekly. The Insane Train was selected as one of the six best mysteries of 2010 by Publishers Weekly. A Forgotten Evil (Cynren/Cennan) won the 2020 Spur Award for Best Western Historical Novel, Western Writers of America. A Particular Madness (Cynren/Cennan) was selected as a Spur Award Finalist for Best Western Contemporary Novel of 2022.Growing up on a cattle ranch in the Gloss Mountains of Oklahoma has given Russell insight into the power of place and man's capacity for good and evil. His was a storytelling culture, a culture of humor and of hard times. A passion for narrative and history was inevitable. Russell and his wife, Nancy, a sculptor, currently reside on the home ranch in Waynoka, Oklahoma. Hobbies and interests include reading, collecting books, and gardening.