Prairie Fire

It's 1898. The West is nearly tamed and the town of Blandus, Montana has electric lights illuminating its streets. Sheriff Conley J Nolan is ready to hang up his star and enjoy life at the family ranch, play with the grandkids, and ride into the sunset with his sweetheart of a wife. But Fate has other plans for Nolan. A prominent citizen lies dead with no clue at the scene to identify the assassin or even how such a mystifying, ritual-ridden murder was pulled off. The investigation could take months and resolution may still elude Nolan. But he cannot walk away from duty or resist an insurmountable challenge. There is nothing to go on and given the deceased's intricate dealings with the entire population of the County, the crime might involve any or all of the community's citizens - men, women, cowboys, Indians, stockmen, farmers and merchants alike. The only person he knows for a fact to be innocent is Conley J Nolan. "Impossible" is not in his vocabulary. He'll work the case till Hell freezes over.

The summer of 1898 brought murder, mystery, drought and prairie fire to eastern Montana. Then autumn hit and Lady Justice rode in on the Storm of the Century, blind to all but the supremacy of water. She rode in hard, trailing bitter winds and natural law that gave residents to believe Hell had indeed become coated in ice.