LAWMAN ON THE OUTLAW TRAIL: TERRANCE MCCAULEY'S BORN TO HANG

Born To Hang is the fourth installment in the Deputy Marshal Jeremiah Halstead series. This time Terrance McCauley's young man with a badge becomes an outlaw. The result is the freshest take of the 1890s Montana world he has created as well as digging deeper than ever before into it.

The crooke menuverings inof his nemesis Ed Zimmerman, twisted Halstead's gunning down of the man's henchmen into a murder charge. Jeremiah goes on the run. Zimmerman already has an illegal bounty on his head and now more are gunning for him than ever. He rides through a Montana winter, hunted like the men he chased down in the past and is forced into several exchanges of lead. He hides in a mountain town in the hands of a crooked sheriff, putting him in a tough spot to deliver justice.

The book gets to focus Jeremiah's sidekick, Deputy Joshua Sanborne, more than ever. Head marshal Aaron Mckey sends the young lawman to find his friend while he works on lifting the warrant. He leads a small posse that includes a reporter who will print the legend no matter what it is.

McCauley plays the settling of Montana against the characters in his western series. His more seasoned hero, Aaron Mackey, has experienced enough changes and knows more are coming. He's learned enough about the interests involved to play it when forced. The younger Halstead and Sanborne were raised in there older ways, bumping up against legal loopholes and politics of the new state as it heads toward the twentieth century. While still dangerous and violent, society moves at the speed of a bullet and can end our heroes just as easily. Still, Born To Hang argues that grounding on their past is something worth relying on.