Summary

Dallas-based Kent debuted with The Heretics Daughter and followed up with The Traitors Wife, morally tenacious tales that drew on family history rooted in Colonial New England, but here she diverges to the 19th-century Gulf Coast. Having escaped from a Texas brothel, Lucinda Carter goes after her treasure-hunting lover, while Texas policeman Nate Cannon tracks a vicious killer named -McGill. Imagine what happens next. Book clubs love Kent.


A taut, thrilling adventure story about buried treasure, a manhunt, and a woman determined to make a new life for herself in the old west.

It's the 19th century on the Gulf Coast, a time of opportunity and lawlessness. After escaping the Texas brothel where she'd been a virtual prisoner, Lucinda Carter heads for Middle Bayou to meet her lover, who has a plan to make them both rich, chasing rumors of a pirate's buried treasure.

Meanwhile, Nate Cannon, a young Texas policeman with a pure heart and a strong sense of justice, is on the hunt for a ruthless killer named McGill who has claimed the lives of men, women, and even children across the frontier.

Who -- if anyone -- will survive when their paths finally cross? As Lucinda and Nate's stories converge, guns are drawn, debts are paid, and Kathleen Kent delivers an unforgettable portrait of a woman who will stop at nothing to make a new life for herself.