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  • Published: 19 October 2022
  • ISBN: 9780786049257
  • Imprint: Kensington
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

Axle Bust Creek



From the battlefield of Shiloh to the prisoner camp at Slocum, former Union soldier Cleveland Trewe has seen more than enough carnage for one lifetime. Now that the war is over he’s found work as a peacekeeper and prospector—the perfect set of survival skills for a town like Axle Bust, Nevada, a place seething with danger.
 
Cleve’s uncle staked a claim in Axle Bust only to lose it to a murderous con-man partnered with Duncan Conroy, owner of the Golden Fleece Mine and a man determined to build an empire by means fair and foul. The only person keeping Conroy in check is his sister Berenice, a freethinker whose scientific education benefits the family interests—even while catching Cleve’s eye.
 
To reclaim his uncle’s mine, and bring justice to a town under tyranny, Cleve finds himself turning the streets into a bullet-riddled battlefield. Conroy is about to learn there just isn’t room for both men in a town like Axle Bust.
 
GOLD FEVER. BLOOD FEVER.
 

From the acclaimed author of Ralph Compton’s Prairie Fire, Kansas, the first in an action-packed new series starring Civil War veteran Cleveland Trewe, a master gunfighter, horseman, and lawman who’s looking to strike it rich in the gold fields of Axle Bust, Nevada…

From the battlefield of Shiloh to the prisoner camp at Slocum, former Union soldier Cleveland Trewe has seen more than enough carnage for one lifetime. Now that the war is over he’s found work as a peacekeeper and prospector—the perfect set of survival skills for a town like Axle Bust, Nevada, a place seething with danger.
 
Cleve’s uncle staked a claim in Axle Bust only to lose it to a murderous con-man partnered with Duncan Conroy, owner of the Golden Fleece Mine and a man determined to build an empire by means fair and foul. The only person keeping Conroy in check is his sister Berenice, a freethinker whose scientific education benefits the family interests—even while catching Cleve’s eye.
 
To reclaim his uncle’s mine, and bring justice to a town under tyranny, Cleve finds himself turning the streets into a bullet-riddled battlefield. Conroy is about to learn there just isn’t room for both men in a town like Axle Bust.
 
GOLD FEVER. BLOOD FEVER.
 

  • Published: 19 October 2022
  • ISBN: 9780786049257
  • Imprint: Kensington
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

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Praise for Axle Bust Creek

Praise for John Shirley

“Gritty realism, thrilling—this is a good one.” Lincoln Journal Star on Wyatt in Wichita
 
“One of our best and most singular writers. A powerhouse of ideas and imagery.” —William Gibson

Snapping, snarling, vigorously wrought drama.” Kirkus Reviews on Stormland