The Cost Of Quiet
(2026)(Book 12 in the Marshal Gideon 'Dust' Calder series)
A novel by C Wayne Winkle
In the eerily quiet town of Mercy Hill, where conversations stall and arguments die unfinished, Marshal Gideon ‘Dust’ Calder senses something deeply wrong.
Men are vanishing without a trace—not with violence, but in perfect silence. Behind the calm facade is Caleb Varn, a former preacher turned ruthless enforcer who has transformed the town into a tightly controlled empire: every business pays a cut, every deal is watched, and anyone who resists simply disappears. Peace is bought with silence, profit, and fear. But Dust refuses to let the system stand. Stirring quiet resistance into open friction, he forces Varn’s hidden machinery into the light, leading to a final, brutal confrontation on the empty plains where sound itself vanishes.
When the dust settles, Mercy Hill must decide whether to embrace messy freedom or cling to its purchased calm.
Genre: Western
Men are vanishing without a trace—not with violence, but in perfect silence. Behind the calm facade is Caleb Varn, a former preacher turned ruthless enforcer who has transformed the town into a tightly controlled empire: every business pays a cut, every deal is watched, and anyone who resists simply disappears. Peace is bought with silence, profit, and fear. But Dust refuses to let the system stand. Stirring quiet resistance into open friction, he forces Varn’s hidden machinery into the light, leading to a final, brutal confrontation on the empty plains where sound itself vanishes.
When the dust settles, Mercy Hill must decide whether to embrace messy freedom or cling to its purchased calm.
Genre: Western