When his friend the sheriff is nearly killed by a sniper, historian-turned-deputy David Mapstone can't keep a cool, academic distance. And he'd better not: A cryptic note scrawled by his friend before the shooting forces Mapstone to con-front his own personal history, which has drawn him unwit-tingly into danger. As Mapstone soon discovers, the past can have deadly conse-quences. The mean streets of the New West have never been more sinister.