It may be the twilight of the Old West but the sun's not about to set on Ethan Payne. The tough-as-nails gunslinger is still holding strong to the traditions that made him notorious. A new trade is giving him the chance to prove it -- as regulator for a Wyoming cattlemen's association. But when an innocent man is killed, Payne's spirit dies along with him. Now it's the fearless outlaw who needs to be rescued. And Buffalo Bill Cody's the one to do it.
A U.S. scout who rode out the Civil War in glory, Cody's become the Wild West's greatest showman. Now that he's got payne in the act, it's only going to get wilder. The biggest draw Cody's ever bankrolled, Payne is riding high once again. Especially when the tour takes him back to Chicago, and back to beautiful Lilah.
2003 by Jason Manning St. Martin's Press (New York) 252 pp ISBN: 0-312-90204-6
The publisher's cover text makes it sound like there's a happy ending, doesn't it? But I had arrived at the final scene before I knew whether Payne would even survive, much less find the redemption he sorely needed after such a checkered past. The first part of the novel, which recounted Payne's career as a regulator, was inspired by the Tom Horn story. The last of a trilogy which includes Frontier Road and Trail Town.