benjamin j kirby

Rip Crowley barely survived the Civil War. Now a widower, he only wants to raise his children — Stella, the baby, and Jeremiah, his young son — in the peace of the Arkansas mountains. But he is brought word of an old soldier, heralding not just the promise of strange treasure, but deadly trouble for his quiet town. The threats to Fox Osage, and Rip’s family, escalate until he has no choice but to defend it. Reluctantly, Rip becomes the Sheriff of Fox Osage, recruiting Jeremiah as one of his deputies. Jeremiah is rebellious, wise, and caring, but struggles to live up to his larger-than-life father; he is more interested in telling stories and drawing maps and pictures than in being a deputy. Sheriff Crowley assembles a rag-tag posse of townspeople as well as outlaw castaways to hunt the town’s biggest threat, the notorious Stetson Wolfe and the Renegade Wolves. The Wolves, hell-bent on tearing through Fox Osage and claiming the mysterious treasure for themselves, will stop at nothing to destroy the small town, and anyone who gets in their way. Outnumbered and outgunned, it will be up to Rip, Jeremiah, and the old, mysterious soldier to stop Stetson Wolfe. And it will be up to Rip Crowley to help his son take the first steps into manhood, and once and for all make real, lasting peace with his own disturbing past.

Rich in detail about the exploration of the western territories in the early 1800s, as well as battles of the Civil War, the story of Rip Crowley is, at its heart, the story of a young boy going to work with his father.