Sometimes life gives you exactly what you do not want, precisely when you need it most. That’s how it was for Gideon. Not that he was guilty, at least not of rustling, but folks were set on hanging him anyway. Don’t get me wrong, Caswell Crossing is full of good people. Some would even call themselves upstanding citizens. Have you ever tried to change the minds of ‘good folks’ when they’re half convinced the swift application of a rope will solve all their problems? Thing is, to Gideon, the prospect of being hanged counted as a bothersome inconvenience. Maybe he was just too busy fending off the Rivers’s attempts to help him to take notice of such things.This story is intelligent & insightful in a way that holds true, not only for its loosely American West setting, but for today’s coffee drinking Joe as well. Told with a ‘sitting beside you on the couch’ feeling, this is a clean read. 1st in the RIVERS series, but titles can be read independently.