Wes Rand

Senator George Hearst has hired former Major Neville Stryker to collect on a bet. Hearst won the San Francisco Examiner in a poker game and wants to give the paper to his son, William, but the owner is reluctant to settle the debt. Hearst enlists Stryker’s unique, persuasive skills.

The story takes place in a northern California town near the Sierra foothills. Neville Stryker, the protagonist, is ambushed and left for dead on the trail. He walks to the next town and finds his horse but he also finds a town held captive....

In Egalitaria, Neville Stryker is drawn into a web of power and revenge when Morgan Bickford, a fiery woman with secrets of her own, hires him to recover her stolen assets. Stryker agrees, but he soon realizes the job is dirtier than it seemed, and Morgan's enemies might be more dangerous than his.

When Senator George Hearst taps Neville Stryker for another off-the-books job, it leads him straight to the gutted remains of the Mark Hopkins Mansion. The tenants, the Bosworth family, have vanished, their blood staining the marble, their bodies nowhere to be found.