Short Cut: Book 1, Roper

He was a stranger, and didn't know the town existed until he saw it on the horizon. All he wanted was a quiet beer before moving on, until he saw the man in the mirror. Half an hour later, two men were dead and he had two bullet wounds of his own. He woke up to an angry sheriff asking hard questions. He could have answered some of them, but lying gets to be a habit.

Then there was Paradise. It was different from the paradise his mama told him about; but it had its attractions; and there sure was a snake. Curiosity got him. He forgot what happened to the cat.

* * *

In Short Cut, New Mexico, Ty Hanson’s in trouble. Big trouble. Some of it is the kind where his gun won’t help. Who can he trust? The sheriff and the sheriff’s wife, Sophia, seem honest, but her uncle is the richest man in town, and he’s determined to own it all.

There’s Ella, as spoiled as she is beautiful. She’s got Ty’s attention. Is she the answer to a lonely cowhand’s prayer or a trap? What about the strange woman, Jane, he met in the saloon? What’s her story, and does Ty fit into it?

None of the ranchers trust each other. Stock is missing, men have been killed. Ty may have put himself right in the middle of a range war about to explode. Add in the jealousy of the second richest man, his spoiled son, a cheerful Mexican ranch foreman, a gang of the deadliest-looking cowhands anybody ever saw, stir well, and watch as Ty tries to avoid winding up with the wrong woman, or on the wrong end of a gun.

Full of romance, strong women, and mystery, the surprises keep coming in this western historical adventure about a man riding his own vengeance trail.