In the frontier mythology, the lines are usually drawn clearly: the lawman is the shield of civilization, and the outlaw is the chaos at the gates. Smoke Creek takes a sledgehammer to that dichotomy.
Set in the tense days leading up to an execution, the story follows the transfer of notorious outlaw Cass Cole to the town of Calamity Reach. Escorting him are Deputy Eli Booker, a young man crushing under the weight of his father’s heroic legacy, and Rhea Calder, a bounty hunter driven by the memory of her family’s death in the Smoke Creek Massacre.
But as the miles wear on and the weather turns, the prisoner begins to talk. What unfolds is not a simple journey to the gallows, but a slow unraveling of a conspiracy involving land grabs, railroad interests, and a Marshal named Silas Vane who believes that "order" is worth any amount of blood—so long as the paperwork is clean.
