"Jake Paynter cheated death, but now there's hell to pay. After escaping the hangman's noose, Jake is now forced to lie low while every lawman, bounty hunter, and desperado west of the Mississippi guns for his head. When he receives word that miners at South Pass City are getting brutally murdered, he fears for his immigrant friends from the Oregon Trail. Against his better judgment, Paynter travels to the mining fields to bring the culprit to justice. Hiding in an abandoned mine by day and sleuthing at night, Jake begins to unravel the mystery of the deaths, drawing the hushed admiration of frightened families who begin looking to him for salvation. However, he faces more than a mysterious killer. His nemesis, Lucien Ashley, has hired a Pinkerton detective and a cutthroat gang from Philadelphia to capture or kill him. As adversarial forces close in, Jake must decide what he is willing to sacrifice. To run might preserve his life. To stay and fight for his friends might save his soul. For what a man fights for spells the difference between honor and dishonor, between duty and disgrace, between valor and simple violence."--