In this family, a hand in marriage is like a foot in the grave.

Longarm was visiting his longtime friend Wade, Goldstrike's local sheriff. Wade seemed a mite bit ornery, but Longarm assumed his friend was just worrying about his job too much--until Wade was shot dead in an ambush. Now Longarm's out to find the killer at any cost. And when he does, he's taking the law into his own hands...

Going undercover as a harmless traveler named Buck Crawford, Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long heads for Animas Point to investigate rumors of a haunted whorehouse whose inhabitants prove a little more lively than he had expected.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long always gets his manand his womanin the two tales that started the series: Longarm and Longarm on the Border.

"The town of Devils River doesn't have much to offer beyond ice-cold beer and a bodacious blacksmith who looks to Longarm like she can bang more than an anvil. But that's where cold-blooded killer and wanted man Dolphus Lasher has chosen to hole up. Tossing Lasher into the local jail proves to be easier than Longarm figured. Problem is, the Lashers are planning a little family reunion in Devils River--the entire murderous clan is about to descend...