Riverbottom Emperor

Jack Derrett seizes a case that becomes extraordinarily difficult, dangerous, and weird. Yet it changes so many things, personally, professionally, and with only a little gunplay.

To Jack it was a simple investigation about a dead man. Buck Canton hunted the river bottoms and called himself the emperor there. He died attacking a city police officer and the family sued. Hale, the city's lawyer, knew of Jack's tenacity. He was just the guy to save the town. A six-million-dollar lawsuit would bankrupt the city of Macabre, Texas.

Jack's interview with the estranged daughter surprised him. She was happy Buck was gone, and she was not part of the lawsuit. Her story painted him and the family as depraved human beings.

The Canton family warned Jack to go away by burning his truck overnight. He starts home in a rental car and a big truck tries to ram him off the road. Another family member tries to burn Jack's home, and there is a gunfight at Danny August's Gun Shop. Jack's famous gun-fighter gaze and mild manner hid a ferocious temper. When Hale suggested they drop the case, he said, "I'm going back, they burned my truck." But why is the Canton family so out of control? What are they hiding? This is too much violence for a civil case.

Danny August went with him. Was he testing him? That seemed odd to Jack. Danny didn't need the excitement; he had once been a Colonel with the Army Rangers. Why did he talk to people at the Pentagon, and the State Department all the time? Even Danny had secrets.

Jack hated keeping the dangers of Macabre from his wife, or that he was taking suggestions from ghosts.

As Jack and Danny become closer friends on the trip, can they pierce the secrecy of the outlaw Canton family, and stay alive?