Winner, Western Writers of America Spur Award in Best Original Mass Market Paperback, 2010.
A young boy grows up to search for the killers of the man who was more or less his father.
When Edward Dawes is a little boy, a stranger comes to the ranch and kills Pa-Pa, an older man who cares for Ed as a father would. Ed remembers the killer, and when he grows up and sees the man again, he goes on a search to find out who the man is, where he comes from, and why he would kill Jake Bishop, or Pa-Pa. Ed’s quest takes him first to a ranch where he learns to be a ranch hand, and then it takes him to Thunder Basin, where he lands a job on a big ranch where the killer works. Ed also meets a girl named Ravenna, an orphan like himself, who doesn’t believe people should get away with injustice. It takes Ed a while to get to the bottom of things, and whoever was behind the killing of Jake Bishop still has things to keep hidden.
"The fiction of John D Nebitt is always excellent. "Stranger in Thunder Basin" is another notch in his artistic belt that jumps out at you." —Tom Lasiuta on Amazon
