Trail of the Axe

In the rough lumber towns of western Canada, not much is expected of a man like Dave Hardy. He's ungainly, unhandsome, the kind of man people glance past on the street. But those who know him trust him completely, and when his friend Jim Truscott leaves for the Yukon gold fields, he asks Dave to do the only thing that matters: watch over Betty, his fiancée, until he returns to build her a future. Dave agrees without hesitation. It's the least he can do for the man he admires. <br><br>But the Yukon changes people. When Jim Truscott comes back to Malkern, he's not the same personable fellow who left. Something in him has shifted, calcified, grown harder in ways Dave can see but cannot name. As suspicion creeps into what was once unshakeable trust, Dave must face an impossible question: what do you owe a friend who has become a stranger? <br><br>Cullum's forgotten frontier novel examines the anatomy of trust with quiet, devastating precision. It's a story about loyalty tested, love complicated by circumstance, and the terrible clarity that comes when we finally see people as they truly are.