Mysterious strangers. Big money. Corrupt politicians. Murder. Mayhem. Hired guns. After a drunk is broken out of Excelsior, Nevada's, jailhouse, former bounty hunter Bane Messenger joins a posse to hunt down the escaped prisoner and his accomplices. Surviving an ambush in which the sheriff and deputy are killed, Bane tracks down the assassins. But, when he returns to Excelsior, he finds that the town's last lawman has also been murdered. Now, a cartel controls the town, using paid gunmen to enforce new laws for their own benefit. Determined to bring law and order back to his hometown, Bane faces a fierce fight only guns can settle, but he learns there's more to enforcing justice than just being good with a gun.
Q. The Valley of the Shadow, the second novel in your series An Adventure of the Old West, seems to involve political corruption. Is this a new type of adversary for Bane?
A. Yes, it is. Bane is a man of action. A Union veteran, he's made his living as a bounty hunter since the end of the Civil War, at least until he met Pamela, the courageous, independent woman who became his bride. Now, when he encounters the criminal cartel who've taken his adopted hometown hostage, he finds he's outgunned and uncertain how to prevail against enemies who use their offices, their connections, and the laws they pass for their own benefit. Fortunately, he has some friends of his own, and, like Bane, they're men to be reckoned with.
Q. Is the action restricted to Bane's hometown?
A. No, he tracks a fugitive quite a ways from Excelsior, Nevada; encounters men intent on murdering him along the trail, as he hunts the escapee; and undertakes a few trips into the mountains and the forests closer to home. But a lot of the action does take place in his hometown, which has become as dangerous as any frontier settlement now that unscrupulous men hold office. In the Wild West, civilization, as represented by the towns that dot the wide, open prairie and the high desert, is fragile. A handful of determined men can destroy it if none dare to resist them. Bane is one of the few who can oppose such predators, and he's not afraid to ride into the Valley of the Shadow.
