“Sometimes darkness enters our lives, it is what we do in the darkness that defines us.”

Sheriff Silvia Bentworth lives for two things: her town, Ovendire, and her daughter, Lemshade. After a renowned family perishes in a house fire that also mysteriously liquefies their cattle, Sheriff Bentworth uncovers an unsettling legend about the town that, if true, will destroy everyone in it. When Gypsy Pardonè, a prisoner associated with the house fire, reveals to Sylvia that he has followed an evil Djinn into Ovendire and that he knows how to restore the town to order, the sheriff faces a tough decision: trust the eccentric outsider, or risk not trusting him, and finding out too late that all he says is true.

The book opens on the written confession from Silvia’s father, former sheriff Garret R. Bentworth:

Mercy spits from the mouth of a gun—that’s what I’ve always said. Sol reigns the land with light and warmth, Luna shrouds us in shadow and in temptation. Them are holy phrases, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. They’re as true as clouds bringing water and life.

            In my time as Sheriff of Ovendire, I drew my gun on more occasions than I can count. Regardless, I only put down one man; an unarmed man at that—for which justice will have its way with me. Most folk around here take that as a sign of weakness, but I was rather proud of it. Before I donned the star a lot of men went in the ground because of me, and I was tired of putting them there. But there is an evil on this rock that needs to be dealt with, and that’s just what I was doing when I shot that unarmed man—I saw the Devil walking down the road and I dealt with it. So I’ll take what’s coming to me.

            Any fool can put on the badge. Standing behind it, well, that takes a certain something. The only advice I have for whoever picks it up after me is this: you won’t find yourself asking if it was worth it, so long as it was necessary. This town has some hurdles ahead of itself. Hard times. I can see it the same way I saw the evil in that man. I don’t envy you, partner.

LAST WRITTEN WORDS OF:

Garret R. Bentworth

ORDER TO HANG