"Deputy U.S. Marshal Jeremiah Halstead keeps the peace in the mining town of Silver Cloud, Montana. But an old enemy has declared war against him. Ruthless and clever, Ed Zimmerman would have become the leader of one of the west's deadliest and hell-bent outlaw gangs. Zimmerman has offered a generous bounty to every desperado willing to put a bullet through the U.S. Deputy Marshal's heart. A death sentence won't stop Halstead from enforcing the law....

"No sooner has Montana become a state than Zimmerman launches a diabolical campaign to turn a remote swath of land into an outlaw kingdom. Some of the richest mines in the West are in Zimmerman's sights, and he's rallied allies on both sides of the law to stake his claim. The corpses are piled high in Deputy U.S. Marshal Jeremiah Halstead's war with the vicious outlaw, but now Zimmerman proves himself as cunning with a pen as he is deadly with a six-gun....