The Trail of the Axe: A Story of Red Sand Valley

Dave has spent twelve years building something real in Red Sand Valley. A lumber mill. A reputation. A life forged through sheer force of will in unforgiving country. He's not handsome. He knows it. But he has strength, honest work, and a generous heart. Then Jim Truscott rides back into the valley: charming, reckless, and hollow. Jim has squandered years in debauchery while Dave was building something that matters. The worst part: Jim is engaged to Betty Somers, the woman Dave has quietly loved. Now Betty faces an impossible choice between the man she promised to marry and the man who actually deserves her. Against the backdrop of northern forests and the brutal lumber trade, Cullum weaves a story about what lasts and what rots away. This is frontier America where character is forged in labor, love is tested by time, and the most dangerous thing in the valley might not be the wilderness.