S B Nace

Long Shadows on the Crimson Range S B Nace

Although he still carried a revolver stuck in his belt, Tom Ross considered his lawless years far behind him. But, like a skeleton thought long buried, his past returns to haunt him with allegations by aging lawmen, and threats from hired killers. Ripped from his settled family life, Tom Ross turns once more to his guns, to seek revenge and guard a shameful secret. Murder leads to prison, and prison to escape. Forced to hit the hoot-owl trail with Milt, his partner in crime, they must now run from the law and the hired gunmen of the Cattlemen's Association, with death stalking close behind. Based on true events that were once famous, but now forgotten, Tom Ross' story is an odyssey, spanning a period from the 1890's to the late Roaring 20's. The novel is historic fiction as a bend-the-rules western thriller, told through the voice of Milt Good, a rodeo star turned rustler, and others who knew Ross, most real, some imagined. The narrative voices, often rough-edged, are reminiscent of James Carlos Blake's The Pistoleer, while others speak of Tom with intimacy, comparable to the character of Mattie in Charles Portis' True Grit.