Gold's Mark
(2025)(The eighth book in the Marshal Micah Gold Western series)
A Story by Jeff Crawford
A brand new Western adventure from Jeff Crawford!
Roy Burnette, an escaped convict with an extremely sour disposition, is the man suspected of at least six murders and several thefts since his escape, including the theft of at least two horses. Killing these people and taking what little they had was bad enough, but it was the heinousness of the murders that makes catching him as quickly as possible a necessity.
Burnette might be bearing a grudge against the world, but he is in no way courageous about how he vents his rage or takes what he needs. Instead of giving his victims the near immediate death that would have offered so much less suffering by turning a gun upon them, Burnette prefers using an alternate means of killing folks. A quieter, more personal method. However, it isn't the way that he's killing folks that has Gold so determined to catch him; it's who Burnette targets that has Gold riding night and day after him. Only those too weak or aged to defend themselves are who he takes from. Those that worked all their lives to earn a little comfort and rest in their waning years are who he deprives of this one simple reward.
So, following not only the carnage left behind, Gold will follow every bent blade of grass, every partial impression left in the sun-baked soil. He will listen for even the most minute mention of anything that sounds like something Burnette left his fingerprints on. And even when he is all but sure that he's found his man, he will go the extra mile and step out of his nature until he is certain. Too much is at stake for him to leave anything to chance, but doing so will prove costly, for he will be forever changed. From now on there will be a constant reminder to him of how far he went to get his man, and a handful of men will regret for a lifetime the part they played in what they will refer to as Gold's Mark.
Genre: Western
Roy Burnette, an escaped convict with an extremely sour disposition, is the man suspected of at least six murders and several thefts since his escape, including the theft of at least two horses. Killing these people and taking what little they had was bad enough, but it was the heinousness of the murders that makes catching him as quickly as possible a necessity.
Burnette might be bearing a grudge against the world, but he is in no way courageous about how he vents his rage or takes what he needs. Instead of giving his victims the near immediate death that would have offered so much less suffering by turning a gun upon them, Burnette prefers using an alternate means of killing folks. A quieter, more personal method. However, it isn't the way that he's killing folks that has Gold so determined to catch him; it's who Burnette targets that has Gold riding night and day after him. Only those too weak or aged to defend themselves are who he takes from. Those that worked all their lives to earn a little comfort and rest in their waning years are who he deprives of this one simple reward.
So, following not only the carnage left behind, Gold will follow every bent blade of grass, every partial impression left in the sun-baked soil. He will listen for even the most minute mention of anything that sounds like something Burnette left his fingerprints on. And even when he is all but sure that he's found his man, he will go the extra mile and step out of his nature until he is certain. Too much is at stake for him to leave anything to chance, but doing so will prove costly, for he will be forever changed. From now on there will be a constant reminder to him of how far he went to get his man, and a handful of men will regret for a lifetime the part they played in what they will refer to as Gold's Mark.
Genre: Western
Used availability for Jeff Crawford's Gold's Mark