First published 2012
Shy South returns to find her farm burned and her siblings gone. The kidnappers have vanished into the wilderness, leaving only ash and terror behind. She knows what this means. The careful life she built will crumble. She must become someone she swore never to be again. Her stepfather Lamb agrees to help track the criminals. He seems like a harmless old man, but Shy notices how his hands never shake when violence threatens. Their pursuit leads them across brutal frontier lands where gold fever has poisoned entire towns. They face gunfights, feuds, and massacres as they climb into unmapped mountains. The trail forces them to ally with Nicomo Cosca, a notorious mercenary whose word means nothing. Lamb's true identity slowly emerges, revealing a past soaked in more blood than Shy ever imagined. The deeper they travel into this savage country, the more Shy realizes that saving her family may cost her soul. Some prices are too high to pay. Others are impossible to avoid.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, fantasy, action
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, redemption
Setting: Frontier, Mountains, Wilderness
Period: 19th-Century
464 pages · Hardcover · Orbit
Content warnings: violence