"The hangman cometh ... When a farmer's wife is murdered, an innocent man is accused: Patrick O'Brien. The book-loving brother had shared his love of literature with the woman, but her husband claims she spurned Pat's advances and that's why he killed her. Now it looks like Patrick will swing from the gallows--especially after his lawyer is targeted, too. Pat's brothers try to track down the real killer, but time is running out. A team of hired guns...

New Mexico Territory is no stranger to bad men. But south of the border, on the wild Mexican coastline, is another kind of wicked: a murderous Arab with a ship full of stolen women--to be sold as sex slaves in the four corners of the world. Among them is a missing local school teacher Shawn O'Brien has been searching for--a woman with a past she's kept carefully hidden. Now Shawn, along with a half-mad bear hunter and a professional hangman fight...