The town of Emerald, California is a quiet, mostly peaceful place. The struggle for power between Moss Williams, the head of the Rancher's Association, and Skip Traeger, the local business tycoon who owns half the town goes mostly unnoticed by the townsfolk until a body turns up in the water hole. Now, Marshal Mason Boydette has to get to the bottom of the biggest mystery Emerald has ever seen. But the Marshal isn't alone. Along the way, he'll try to get help from his trusty deputy, an unorthodox trio of drifters who blow into town, the local minister, and a town full of people who are forced to make a choice between justice and the easy way out. Everyone's lives are turned upside-down, and everyone must take sides before it is to late and their entire way of life disappears forever. About the Author Andrew Burch was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in Connecticut, but his heart belongs to the West, his wife, Sofiya's, original home. He began watching westerns in the 70s in the heyday of John Wayne and still enjoys watching The Riflemen, Big Valley, and Gunsmoke in syndication, taking his inspiration from the classics rather than modern, grittier, and morally ambiguous tales of the Old West. Andrew is an avid sports fan who claims to be a scratch golfer-at the end of every round, he scratches out his score so no one else can read it.