The Long Dust

Matthew Anderson knows the work: keep eleven hundred cattle moving north, keep the hands together, find water before the herd needs it and reach the railhead with enough animals left to make the drive worthwhile. Then he begins to find brands that do not belong. The cattle in his charge have been taken from ranchers scattered across New Mexico Territory. The men paying him expect the herd delivered. The railroad is waiting. Every mile north makes the theft harder to undo - and a man who asks the wrong questions ends up dead. Matthew can finish the job he was hired to do, take his pay and ride on. Or he can turn the herd away from the train and force what happened into the open. A tense historical Western about cattle, divided loyalties and the cost of doing the right thing when the job itself has become the crime.