RESUME OF PURGATORY SANDS Justin Simms comes to Trinidad, Colorado in 1876 as the state is being admitted to the Union. Just orphaned by the death of his mother and barely at an age to be held legally competent, he hopes to begin ranching his inherited estate, the Salida Del Sol. Progress is made. He finds an ally in Phillip Squinty' Craig. He meets and is smitten by Kate Kantel, daughter of a prosperous cattleman. He also stumbles upon Lilly Castle, the daughter of menacing Andrew Castle. Then events rush in upon him. Squinty Craig is killed. Hard on the heels of this tragedy, Lilly Castle precipitates a vengeful attack upon him by her father. Alone and grieving, his youthful dreams and ambitions shattered, he flees before Andrew's wrath, forsaking the Salida Del Sol lands. Rescued by a band of petty cattle thieves, Justin is reborn as Purgatory Sands. The band's members challenge him, punish him, but also protect and instruct him. In time, he grows into his new name and new life he becomes an outlaw. Again, events send him in an entirely different direction. Following a failed train robbery and gang gunfight, he is once more alone and fleeing. He reconnects with Sam Boden, a wise and sympathetic man who had befriended him four years earlier while on his journey to Trinidad. To his surprise, he learns that Sam is the legendary Marshal Sam, but he learns this only after Sam, as Marshal, tracks him down in the dry lands west of the Pecos and only after he disables and wounds Sam which fills him with remorse. Nursed by Purgatory, Sam recovers, takes Purgatory in tow, and introduces him to an entirely new set of opportunities. A powerful Easterner of Sam's acquaintance, Millard Hamilton Jacobs, owning lands in Wyoming territory, wants a man with a quick gun and a badge to occupy a U.S. Marshall's office in Green River City. He wants this man to counter the local constabulary's sympathy for cattlemen opposed to Jacobs' enterprise. Jacobs chooses Purgatory for the job, and while Purgatory is initially repulsed by Jacobs, he sees the job as the portal to a new life. He takes it. Being by himself and a fugitive have intensified Purgatory's sense of aloneness. He often daydreams of dark-haired, blue-eyed Kate Kantel. However, such recurrent fantasies sadden more than comfort him. He is convinced that Kate is lost to him. So, he turns away from thoughts of Kate. His imagery, however, remains stubbornly fixed on dark shiny hair and sparkling blue eyes. Arriving in Green River City, Wyoming , he comes into the presence of a dark-haired, blue-eyed woman at a restaurant. He is fascinated by the sense that he has already met and known her. She is literally the woman of his dreams! Then a server addresses her as Mrs. Molly, and the illusion is broken. She is married! In wry self-deprecation, he turns his focus to his first assignment as a U.S. Marshal. Better that he do his job as a lawman than pursue idle dreams. Customer Reviews from Barnes and Noble A reviewer, Michael Goldstein 02/27/2007 Tales of Daring Do Those of us born in the first half of the 20th century were only one or two generations removed from the frontier, and recall mythically sung stories of derring-do in western movies. V. E. Bixenstine's novel, Purgatory Sands, has overtones of those myths. It is clear from the book's back cover that the author remains in their grip. The novel's eponymous hero undergoes moral and physical development with

Synopsis (Marshal Sands and Mrs. Molly) Molly Dandridge trusts a charming rogue and, against her father's wishes, elopes with him from her Chicago home. He abandons her in Green River City, Wyoming, to face her shame and live or perish in frontier America circa 1880. Liz Dunlap urges her to go home. She will not. Instead, she becomes one of Liz's saloon girls. Alas, she is unable to adopt the emotional distance Liz advocates, so when a young customer proposes marriage, her shame reignites. She sets out through winter's snow, seeking release from life's complications. Liz sends Andy Phillips, the saloon owner, who finds her near death. Liz and Andy devise a solution. She becomes Andy's house card dealer. U.S. Marshal Pur (Purgatory) T. Sands arrives and is dispatched to escort Soapy Smith to Denver. Soapy escapes and eludes pursuit, but Purgatory finally divines where he has gone, captures him, and escorts him into his CO's office. The Commander had assigned Purgatory the mission hoping to prove him incompetent, but, with Purgatory's success recapturing Soapy, he decides, "I want nobody else but you back in that post." In Green River City, he meets Molly. They are mutually attracted, but both hold back. Spring comes, putting in motion Milliard Jacobs' plans to provoke ranchers into a range war with his hired ruffians led by Kenneth McMann. Just as the war clouds gather, Jean Frenchy Dubois, one of McMann's men, abducts Molly with Purgatory in pursuit. Purgatory catches up, blunders into a trap, and breaks his leg. Molly diverts Frenchy from killing him by promising to go "freely" with Frenchy. Believing she lies, he is about to kill her when Kenneth McMann appears seeking to show that no underling takes his horse and departs his service without dire cost. McMann kills Frenchy but spares Molly and Purgatory as not worthy of killing. Molly and Purgatory return to Green River City. Purgatory, on crutches, awaits anyone seeking the Doctor's services for wounds incurred from the ongoing war. Hank Miller, who killed Kenneth McMann's brother, escorts in three wounded men. Purgatory arrests Miller. Soon thereafter, Kenneth arrives with three men, one wounded, seeking revenge on Miller. McMann and Purgatory duel. McMann is killed. Purgatory and Deputy Paul Thirloway trade fire with McMann's two able bodied henchmen who are killed, but Paul is wounded. Purgatory turns to Paul, and the wounded, still-living, McMann follower shoots Purgatory in the back. Purgatory recovers and leaves for Trinidad to finally confront his past. He learns that Lilly, Andrew Castle's daughter, killed herself without having a child that she had threatened to claim was Purgatory's. The news drains him of all fear of and hate for Andrew. Without inquiring of Kate Kantel or his abandoned property, he leaves to retrace his outlaw haunts, trying to make sense of his life. The men he killed obsess him. He arrives at Santa Fe and Marshal Sam Boden's office. Sam understands the soul-searching Purgatory is undergoing, and once again offers the fruits of his experience and avuncular regard. Purgatory heals and lays aside the identity of Purgatory Sands to resume that of a more mature Justin Simms. He returns to Green River City. Molly is startled at the change in him. He tells her that he will never again be Purgatory Sands nor ever again leave her. They marry, and some years later Justin Simms unknown to Molly visits her parents in Chicago. She is at first outraged, but gradually he becomes the agent of Molly's return to the bosom of her family.

On their way to fight in the Mexican-American War, a group of American soldiers are swept away to a strange and deadly alternate Earth in this thrilling new adventure set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Destroyermen series. The United States, 1847. A disparate group of young American soldiers are bound to join General Winfield Scott's campaign against Santa Anna at Veracruz during the Mexican-American War. They never arrive. Or rather . . . they arrive somewhere else. The untried, idealistic soldiers are mostly replacements, really; a handful of infantry, artillery, dragoons, and a few mounted riflemen with no unified command. And they've been shipwrecked on a terrible, different Earth full of monsters and unimaginable enemies. Major Lewis Cayce, late of the 3rd US "Flying" Artillery, must unite these men to face their fears and myriad threats, armed with little more than flintlock muskets, a few pieces of artillery, and a worldview that spiritually and culturally rebels against virtually everything they encounter. It will take extraordinary leadership and a cadre of equally extraordinary men and women to mold frightened troops into an effective force, make friends with other peoples the evil Holy Dominion would eradicate, and reshape their "manifest destiny" into a cause they can all believe in and fight for. For only together will they have any hope of survival.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.