The John Gunn Chronicles #4

When a string of gold robberies breaks out across the Colorado high country, the Chief Marshal in St. Louis hands the case to the ruthless marshal: U.S. Deputy Marshal John Gunn.

Gunn won his badge at 18 by order of President Lincoln, a Civil War sniper who came home with a cold killing rage and a gift for disguise that unsettles everyone he meets. He rides into Colorado with a Sharps rifle that can drop a man at a mile, a big golden dog named Yellow, and no use for polite society or the lawmen who have already failed the case.

But the robberies make no sense. Why would bandits risk their necks stealing raw ore, worthless until it reaches a stamp mill? The further Gunn digs, through old assay records and played-out mines, the uglier the answer becomes. The heists are faked. Behind them sits a swindle so brazen and so profitable that Colorado's wealthiest men have built fortunes on it, and they will kill to keep it buried.

Gunn would rather trap a thief than shoot one. But out here, exposing a rich man and surviving him are two very different things.