BLIZZARDS, BEARS, AND BARROOM BRAWLS

Disgraced sheriff's deputy Ruth Cortez never thought she'd be a wanted fugitive. She certainly never expected to be facing the End Times with nothing but an old flintlock and a dead man's boots.

But someone has to stop the snake-handling Reverend Jolly before he recruits the most infamous outlaws in the Northern Territory to terrorize her hometown. With luck, she can stay one step ahead of her lover-turned-enemy Marshal Sebastian Hardin—and keep the irrepressible Lee Merriweather from landing them all in even deeper trouble.

When Ruth, Lee and the train cook Ned Carver roll into Hatchet, the Wickedest Little Town in the N.T., all their plans go sideways. Something is terribly wrong with Ruth's cantankerous phantom, Doc. And an unexpected betrayal leaves them in their tightest spot yet.

Things are looking decidedly grim when evil forces descend on the isolated town of Lucky Boy. But as they say on the prairie, a pair of six-shooters beats a pair of sixes—and Hell hath no fury like a woman defending her home.