The Bride and the Bandit — Lynna Banning

Geneva Stanton travels to Maple Falls, Oregon, after inheriting the town library, which suits her just fine since she longs to be a writer and the town provides a ready supply of potential cast members for her play The Trials of Cleopatra. Out West, she observes a side of life she has never seen before -- the plight of struggling impoverished minority families -- and she desperately wants to help them by every means possible, even if it means beggaring herself in the process. When Franklin Burkett steps off the train from Colorado, he sets up a portrait photography studio. But Frank is no photographer -- he's actually an undercover detective sent to Maple Falls to capture the mysterious Black Bandit who has been robbing the townspeople. His reward is a promised pardon for the prison sentence he is currently serving. Can Geneva continue to anonymously play the Good Samaritan with Frank snooping around? Will Frank solve the mystery of the Black Bandit before his time runs out? And will their growing attraction to each other be doomed like the real-life love story of Antony and Cleopatra?