The Highbinders

A Pinkerton detective takes on railroad crime in this thrilling Western from the Spur Award–winning author, “a master storyteller of frontier history” (Elmer Kelton).

In California, The Southern Pacific Railway was prying the West wide open, and the land was worth its weight in gold. While some men got in on the action, and some got out of the way, one group of settlers was making a stand—and holding up the railway.

Turning to Alan Pinkerton’s Chicago detective agency, the railroad robber barons hired the perfect agent to penetrate the settler’s organization, a man who had learned a spy’s trade in the Civil War. Tall, debonair, and pleasure-loving Ash Tallman can fight when he has to, lie when he needs to, and make love when he wants the right kind of woman on his side. But as Tallman enters the lush San Joaquin Valley in the company of a risk-taking beauty, he finds a fight with no clear battle lines, no sure enemies, and only one way out—by hunting the killers who are hunting him . . .