Originally published in the US by Doubleday.

"Special U.S. Marshal John Rye, better known as the "Doomsday Marshal," was very good at what he did. His name was both feared and respected wherever he traveled. But for every decent citizen who would aid Rye in his task of bringing a killer to justice, there seemed to be an outlaw who would welcome the chance to shoot him in the back. Rye's current assignment was to track down the killer of Judge Orson Brite of Gallen, Wyoming. In what seemed at first to be a stroke of good luck, he apprehended a man and his wife just a day's journey down the trail. But the more time he spent with them, the more they seemed to be just the opposite of the type he was looking for, and the more he began to think he was wasting his time while the real killer increased the distance between them. And when all three of them became the targets of a group of unknown bushwhackers, he was more than glad to have them as allies. Still, there was a murderer at large, and it was Rye's job to find him"--Provided by publisher.