Abstract:
As a prisoner of the Confederate Army, Cole Mason's confidence is shattered. Back in his native Vermont, he is haunted by the experience. He quits his father's ancestral farm and heads West. On the trail in Missouri, he comes upon a bizarre situation. People are being murdered as they travel the backcountry. Some are being shot to death, others are strangely being killed in a ritualistic manner. Cole joins with the sheriff, his two deputies and a freed slave woman--now manager of a highly reputed bordello--to hunt down the killers. The story has a fiery and explosive ending.