With a bit of guilt, Thad retires George Stark, his pseudonym, only to have him appear as a killing machine that destroys everyone on the path that leads to the man who created him.

"Ninety years ago the Toomey brothers, along with twenty-five other men and four thousand head of cattle, vanished en route to Arizona. When writer and historian Dan Sheridan is invited to the missing brothers' ranch by its current owner, he jumps at the chance. The visit fits right in with his plan to solve the century-old mystery - but it turns out that his host isn't a fan of books, writers, or people who don't mind their own business. Soon Dan...