Business lately has been deadly for Ike Kelly. Recent unexpected gunplay has left his agency to a single operative. John Henry Cole is that operative. Kelly has received a letter from former lover Lydia Winslow, who operates an escort service in the new mining camp of Deadwood in Dakota Territory. “Three young women have been murdered since they arrived in camp.” It is obviously a dangerous assignment, and Cole is advised that he must take every precaution–as if he needed such advice. Deadwood was the scene of the recent murder of the legendary Wild Bill Hickok, and Calamity Jane Canary and Doc Holliday will be among the people Cole will have to regard as potential suspects. Constable Johnny Logan, a fractious, corrupt lawman, and King Fisher, a bounty hunter and old enemy of Cole’s, will be among those who will not welcome his arrival in Deadwood. Cole is a lonely man in a lonely profession, and finding a murderer in the wild mining camp could be less of a challenge than simply staying alive.

John Henry Cole is an operative of Ike Kelly’s Detective Agency, based out of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. Returning to Cheyenne from what had been a deadly assignment in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Cole has decided that he has no alternative but to resign from the agency and pursue a different line of work. However, in Cheyenne, Cole learns that Ike Kelly has been murdered and his body burned in a fire that destroyed both the agency office and the shop next door. No one seems to have any idea who might have murdered Kelly, and Leo Foxx, the town marshal, is so disinterested in the crime that he has yet to start an investigation, so Cole must begin his own.

John Henry Cole’s life has quieted down from what it had always been, and he can now settle down and make improvements on his small ranch. But everything changes when an old rancher named Wilson rides in with his two sons.

Wilson is willing to pay Cole $5,000 to help get back his wife, Lenora, who has been taken hostage by Lucky Jack Dancer, an outlaw who had robbed the train on which she was a passenger. She is being held prisoner in Gun Town, a safe haven for outlaws.

Cole had sided Lucky Jack Dancer years ago when both of them had operated as US marshals in the Indian Nations, but that was before Lucky Jack had quit the service and become an outlaw. The situation becomes complicated when Cole learns that Wilson’s son doesn’t want the woman back and that Wilson’s health is seriously compromised.

John Henry Cole’s life has quieted down from what it had always been, and he can now settle down and make improvements on his small ranch. But everything changes when an old rancher named Wilson rides in with his two sons. Wilson is willing to pay Cole $5,000 to help get back his wife Lenora who has been taken hostage by Lucky Jack Dancer, an outlaw who had robbed the train on which she was a passenger. She is being held prisoner in Gun Town, a safe haven for outlaws. Cole had sided Lucky Jack Dancer years ago when both of them had operated as U.S. Marshals in the Indian Nations, but that was before Lucky Jack had quit the service and become an outlaw. The situation becomes complicated when Cole learns that neither of Wilson’s sons wants the woman back and that Wilson’s health is seriously compromised.

John Henry Cole worked for years in Cheyenne, Wyoming–first as a policeman, and later a detective. He enjoyed the work, despite its dangers, but it was time for a change. So he decided to open his own agency, one staffed by former lawmen like himself. In practice they might be bounty hunters, but he hired men he had worked with before that he knew and trusted to be honorable and professional–and then they got to work.

And work it was. Cole’s agency was located in just about the most dangerous place it could be: Red Pony, in the Cherokee strip, a region often referred to as a no-man’s-land because of its rampant outlawry. But the way Cole saw it, what better place to hunt for outlaws with bounties on their heads?

But Cole’s team may have bit off more than it can chew when it sets out to capture the notorious Sam Starr and his outlaw gang, and bring them all to justice.

John Henry Cole had worked for years as a lawman and then as a detective for an agency out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was this work that he enjoyed, despite its dangers, that had inspired him to establish his own agency. He gathered ex-lawmen like himself, men he knew and trusted, most of whom he had worked with at one time or another. Cole s agency was located in just about the most dangerous place one could find in Red Pony, in the Cherokee Strip, commonly called No Man s Land because of the rampant outlawry. But, Cole had figured, what better place to hunt for outlaws for the money on their heads? His agency might consist in practice of bounty hunters, but the agency men were in themselves honorable and professional. It was this group that set out to capture the notorious Sam Starr and his outlaw gang.

John Henry Cole, working as a deputy US marshal out of Judge Isaac Parker’s court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, was on assignment in the Indian Nations when he was shot and seriously injured. Now, fifteen years later, employed as a deputy for Judge Roy Bean in Texas, Cole receives a personal summons from Judge Parker to appear in his court within thirty days. Cole isn’t inclined to go, but he knows whatever’s on Judge Parker’s mind is serious and decides he has to go.

John Henry Cole, working as a deputy U.S. marshal out of Judge Isaac Parker’s court in Arkansas, was on assignment in the Indian Nations, in pursuit of a group of white renegades who were in hiding there – above all a particularly vicious renegade named Caddo Pierce. He had a wagon of captive renegades when he was shot and seriously injured. He managed to come out of the Nations with his prisoners, but decided that he had enough of that job and so resigned. Now fifteen years later, employed as a deputy for Judge Roy Bean in Texas, Cole receives a personal summons from Judge Parker. He learns that Caddo Pierce and his gang are systematically murdering Indian law enforcement officers and their families in the Nations. By treaty, Parker cannot send any officer into the Nations to pursue a killer unless that killer has killed a white man, so Cole is without backing in his pursuit of Pierce.

The winter around Cheyenne, Wyoming, is devastating, killing both people and livestock. John Henry Cole lives three miles out of town on his small ranch, where he waits out the storm that is quickly killing his cattle and horses. Everything he owns is dying before his eyes, and there isn’t anything he can do about it. His dreams of a settled life are as dead as everything else. He knows it’s time to move on, and move on he does–but not in the direction he expected.

Teddy Green, a Texas ranger, arrives in Cheyenne and seeks Cole’s help in locating Ella Mims, a woman who once lived in Cheyenne and with whom Cole had once been intimate. Green wants to question Mims concerning her involvement in a Denver City murder … but he’s not the only one searching for her.

The winter around Cheyenne Wyoming that year was devastating killing both people and livestock. John Henry Cole was three miles out of town on his small ranch waiting out the storm that was quickly killing his cattle and horses and starting to feel a little crazy himself. Everything he owned was dying before his eyes and there wasn’t anything that he could do about it. His dreams of a settled life were as dead as everything else. He knew it was time to move on. And move on he did but not in a direction he expected. Teddy Green a Texas Ranger arrives in Cheyenne and seeks Cole s help in locating Ella Mims a woman who once lived in Cheyenne and with whom Cole had once been intimate. Green wants to question her concerning her involvement in a murder in Denver City. But they would not be the only ones searching for her.