Bitter Creek — Carter Swart

Bitter Creek... Haunted drifter Jim Sutter rides into heavy trouble his first night in Bitter Creek, a Dakota Territory cowtown. Caught up in the epic 1886 drought, the town is the focal point for an escalating blood feud between stockmen and homesteaders. Tensions run high, cattle are dying and the stockmen are desperate, for the sodbusters control the river. Hugh Tallant, head of the Stockmen's Association, brings in brawler Milo Pitt and dangerous gunfighter Gil Fetterman to harass and humble his enemy. Opposing him is stubborn homesteader Lucas Brand, who has the guts and guile to thwart Tallant, at least for awhile.

Sutter, beaten by Pitt, is rescued by lovely rancher, Jenny Olds. She's a lonely woman -- virtually a widow -- her husband gone missing. Sutter soon falls under her bittersweet spell. Hugh Tallant is displeased by this, as he has his own plans for her. Thus, he and Sutter are fated to clash. And as the feud grows more deadly, as fists give way to guns, it's clear that only one man is skilled enough, and brave enough, to step in and save the town from itself. But Jim Sutter, paralyzed by remorse, has given up the gun!