Dancing Devil Range

Christmas week on the Dancing Devil range, and the town of Northgate is bleeding. A bank robbery has shattered the community. A young woman lies dead. And the wrong man is rotting in jail while the real killers move through the shadows. Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens drift into town on a freight train, and within minutes witness a man gunned down in the snow. They are strangers here, but Hashknife's reputation as a solver of range mysteries draws the desperate to his door. The Davidsons and Frawleys are locked in a bitter fight for survival. Johnny Davidson sits in a cell, condemned by nothing but circumstance. And someone is playing a long game, using ranch politics, love affairs, and cold cash to pull strings from the dark. As Christmas approaches, Hashknife and Sleepy must untangle a web of crime and suspicion before more blood hits the frozen ground. Tuttle writes the frontier not as legend, but as a hard and hungry place where poverty breeds desperation and silence covers lies. This is Western noir: crisp, cold, and deadly.