Black Mesa Creek

Eight years in prison gave Rourke Harlan plenty of time to think about the men who put him there.Then a dying surveyor tells him his conviction was never really about stolen cattle.It was about land. Water. And a boundary someone needed moved.Six weeks after his release, Rourke returns to Black Mesa Crossing under a borrowed name. The town he remembers has changed. Rancher Gideon Sorrel controls the freight routes, the water, and enough debt to make half the county answer when he calls. Judge Halvern Pike still has the authority to turn convenient lies into official truth.But Rourke is no longer looking only for revenge.A hidden freight ledger, altered survey records, a broken creek marker, and evidence left behind by his dead father reveal a scheme that reaches farther than the crime that sent him away. To expose it, Rourke will need the help of a hard-eyed freight clerk who remembers exactly what his disappearance cost, an old prison friend, a stubborn farrier, and townspeople who have spent years learning when not to speak.The closer Rourke gets to the truth, the less interested Sorrel's men become in keeping him quiet.They want the evidence gone.And this time, Rourke intends to make sure the truth survives him.BLACK MESA CREEK is a tense Western mystery about stolen land, buried evidence, frontier corruption, and a man forced to decide whether justice means killing the people who destroyed his life-or making sure everyone finally sees what they did.