From the book blurb: In the summer of 1946, the most wide-open town in America is Hot Springs, Arkansas, a city of legendary corruptions. While the pilgrims take the cure in the mineral-rich water, the brothels and casinos are the true source of the town's prosperity. This is run by an English-born gangster named Owney Maddox...

But...a newly-elected county prosecutor hires ex-Marine Earl Swagger to wage a war on the gambling. Swagger knows how to fight with guns as well as any man in the world, but he is haunted by the savage memories of the fighting he just barely survived in Iwo Jima...

Will Owney Maddox defeat the raiders but lose a secret battle with a young man from the West who foresees a Hot Springs in the Nevada desert? Will Earl Swagger survive another hard war, not merely with his body but also with his soul intact?

Given to the Herbert Westcoat Memorial Library in McArthur, Ohio, to support their annual Spring Literary Festival.