Book description
The West is a wild place, where the poison wind blows and the dead
walk. But there is gold, and whiskey, and enough room for a man to
forget what he once was. Until he can no longer can.
Jack Gabriel's been the sheriff in Damnation almost since the town grew
out of the dust and the mud. He keeps the peace - sort of - and rides
the circuit every dawn and dusk with the chartermage, making sure the
wilderness doesn't seep into the fragile attempt at civilization. Out
there, away from the cities clinging to the New World's eastern rim, he
doesn't remember what he was. Or at least, not much.
But Damnation is growing, and along comes a schoolmarm. Catherine
Barrowe is a right proper Boston miss, and it's a mystery why she would
choose this particular town, where everything scandalous and dangerous
is probably too much for a quality lady like her. Sometimes the sheriff
wonders why she came out West - because everyone who does is running
from something. He doesn't realize Cat may be prickly, delicate, and
proper, but she is also determined. She's in Damnation to find her
wayward older brother, whose letters were full of dark hints about gold,
and trouble, and something about a claim.
In a West where charm and charter live along clockwork and cold steel,
where hot lead only kills your enemy once but it takes a blessing to
make his corpse stay down, Cat will keep digging until she finds out
what happened to her brother. If Jack knew what she was after, he could
solve the mystery - because he killed the young man, and for good
reason.
The thing is, Cat's brother just won't stay dead, and the undead are
rising with him . . . Lilith Saintcrow was born in New Mexico, bounced
around the world as an Air Force brat, and fell in love with writing
when she was ten years old. She currently lives in Vancouver, WA with
two small children and a houseful of cats. Oh. And a husband too.
