Dead Weight (An Eldridge Sample Western)He promised a dying lawman he’d deliver the prisoner. He didn’t promise to keep him happy.

Riding through the blistering silence of the Arizona badlands, drifterEldridge Sample spots a circle of vultures and rides into a trap. Atthe bottom of a dry wash lies an overturned prison wagon, a deaddriver, and a U.S. Marshal bleeding out in the dust.

TheMarshal’s last request? Take the badge, take the key, and deliverthe passenger to Yuma Prison.

Thepassenger is Virgil Sweet—a dapper, fast-talking con man whoembezzled fifty thousand dollars in bearer bonds from the mostruthless gang leader in the territory. Virgil is smart, slippery, andconvinced he can buy his way out of anything. But he’s about tofind out that Eldridge Sample doesn't trade in bribes; he trades inkeeping his word.

Now,with the murderous Bishop gang hot on their heels and the desert heatclosing in, Sample must drag his "dead weight" across alandscape that wants them both dead. From a siege in a crumblingghost town to a high-stakes bluff in a slot canyon, the two men areforced into an uneasy alliance where the only thing cheaper than thetalk is the lead.

"You'rea dinosaur, Sample," the con man said. "Honor gets youkilled."

"Maybe,"Sample replied. "But greed gets you buried."

Witty,violent, and relentlessly paced, Dead Weight combines the grittyrealism of 3:10 to Yuma with the sharp-tongued dialogue of an ElmoreLeonard classic. It is a story about the heavy burden of a promiseand the dangerous allure of a fortune that might just be smoke.

Keywords:Western Thriller, Heist Novel, Buddy Action, Road Trip, BountyHunter, US Marshal, Con Artist, Elmore Leonard Style, HistoricalFiction, Desert Survival, Action Adventure.