Gene Hamilton walked the heated streets of Yuma, Arizona Territory and felt good. But, the heat was almost unbearable. He did try to stop a fight in front of the saloon. Big mistake. He turned and struck someone he thought was interfering with his peacemaking: Sheriff Sweeney. The 3 months in Yuma Territorial Prison was the sentence. It wasn't long before he found his ranch was taken away from him for failing to pay the taxes. Who? That led him to a strange and tangled mess of unknown people doing very bad things to not just Gene, but to others. Why? Then he saw her. She was a vision in this miserable Hell on Earth. The mystery wove around him, he was shot, taken to the hospital where the vision treated him with the help of a competent doctor. That same woman was taken captive as a warning to Gene and he had to rescue her. The last thing he wanted was a woman of her class and style to be caught up in his problems, but that was only his want, not what happened.
The end of this book deals with the solution to why things were so corrupt in the city at the time. It appears Gene Hamilton and his secret might go to the grave with him. The fast pace of the action leads you to the conclusion this is how things ought to be done.
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The action is quick and the reading is wonderful. The old west comes alive. The heat and the conditions around the river beside which Yuma was built is as visual as a writer can make it. Wonderful words. Olin is a magic maker. His stories are fast and they make the hero into reality and the heroine a true subject to be admired in the old west.
— Kelly Kelton, writer and editor
