Estleman, Loren D.  
  
  
    "In the spring of 1896
 after thirty years spent dispensing justice in Montana
 Judge Harlan Blackthorne expires
 leaving Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock
 his most steadfast officer
 to escort his remains across the continent by rail. The long journey is interrupted from time to time by station stops for the public to pay its respects
 and for various marching bands to serenade the departed with his favorite ballad
 "After the Ball." This gives Murdock plenty of opportunity to reflect upon the years of triumphs and tragedies he's seen firsthand
 always in the interest of bringing justice to a wilderness that he
 his fellow deputies
 and the judge played so important a role in its settlement. As the funeral train chugs through prairie
 over mountains
 and across rivers once ruled by buffalo herds
 Indian nations
 trappers
 cowboys
 U.S. Cavalry
 entrepreneurs
 and outlaws representing every level of heroism
 sacrifice
 ambition
 and vice
 Wild Justice provides a capsule history of the American frontier from its untamed beginnings to a civilization balanced on the edge of a new and unpredictable century" --