A Stranger Comes to Town (Paperback or Softback)

Chad Pickett is a drifting gunfighter trying to leave a violent past behind him. But trouble has a way of finding Chad, and on the High Plains of Comanche Country he rides straight into the aftermath of murder.

Two Comanche hunters have been shot in the back and scalped, and buffalo hunter Jack Grogan and his men are tormenting their sister, Angeni. Chad could keep riding, but walking away from injustice has never been his way. With two Colt .45s in his hands, he faces Grogan's gang, frees Angeni and leaves their leader wounded and humiliated. As Chad rides away with the young woman, Grogan sends a warning after him: all trails cross.

Chad intends to return Angeni to her people, only to discover that the army has driven the Comanches from their homeland towards the barren Red Rock Country to make way for settlers and the advance of civilization. Chad promises to take her to them, but winter closes in. A fierce blizzard makes further travel impossible, forcing them to seek shelter in the isolated mountain settlement of Medicine Bow until spring.

Medicine Bow needs more than another winter resident. It needs a lawman.

The town has been without a sheriff since Lobo Jackson was murdered after challenging Abe Wallach, the wealthy and ruthless man who effectively controls Medicine Bow. Chad only intends to find work and somewhere for himself and Angeni to survive the winter, but when the mayor offers him the vacant sheriff's badge, he accepts.

Wallach expects the new sheriff to understand how things work. He attempts to buy Chad's cooperation, only to discover that Chad Pickett cannot be bought. Wallach has hired gunmen to enforce his will, violence and murder are commonplace, and fear has kept the townspeople silent. Chad decides that if he is going to wear the badge, he will make it mean something.

Then Grogan and his buffalo hunters arrive in Medicine Bow, trapped there by the winter weather. Chad suddenly finds himself sharing a snowbound town with men who hate him and have sworn revenge.

But there is another stranger in town. A newcomer calling himself Muskrat is really Billy Vance, a man who has spent years hunting Chad. Pickett killed Vance's brother in a fair gunfight at Beaver Creek, but Billy wants vengeance and has waited six years for his chance. Now his quarry is trapped in Medicine Bow for the winter.

As killings mount, Chad takes drastic action. Every citizen must surrender his firearms, and only the sheriff and his deputies will be allowed to carry guns in Medicine Bow. Most townspeople welcome the chance for peace. Wallach, his gunfighters and Grogan's men see it as a declaration of war.

Now Chad must impose law on men who have always lived by the gun, protect Angeni and survive enemies closing in around him. And while he watches Wallach and Grogan, the most dangerous threat of all is already at his side, patiently waiting to settle an old score.

All trails cross, hombre.

And in snowbound Medicine Bow, those trails are finally about to meet.