This is a western murder mystery written by a woman and very enjoyable. A good book to sit down, read and relax. It occurs in 1900, ten years after the Indian Massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The book is set in the Sand Hills of northern Nebraska and tells of the settling of this part of the country.The book begins with a murder. An attractive young Sioux Indian woman, Star, is found dead and partially buried. Next to her is J.B. Bennett shot dead, the owner of a large ranch. Ry Graver finds these bodies and is accused of their murders. Who else was there so it must be this man. Graver says he is not the killer. So they take him to the ranch, he has been wounded possibly by the killer. Ry Graver, whose wife and three kids died from starvation, is planning on moving on but is shot, strangely not killed. So he is kept in this area though he swears he is innocent.There are many interesting characters who are wanting to tame this fierce and beautiful land. One family is the Bennetts. Drum Bennett, the patriarch, who first drifted to this part of the land and homesteaded. A rough, tough, gruff old man, raised hard and tough, he is mean to people, warm and compassionate toward animals. The old bastard he is called. But is he really as hateful as he is seen to be? He takes his older grandson, Cullen, to raise, to make a man out of the boy. For allowing Drum to take the boy he gives J.B. a large piece of his land. The two large ranches are separate, but next to each other. J.B.'s separated wife returns to the land when she hears of her husband's death. It is now hers. Dulcinea has lived in the area, in the tiny towns around to stay close to her family. Drum has threatened her. The lady has to sneak around to see J.B. in small hotels and out of the way places. I am surprised that J.B. would tolerate his family be treated so shabby.for the price of a ranch ownership. Drum feels that Hayward raised by his father, is spoiled, will never be much of a man. He needed to be beaten, made strong, but he is lost. Hayward is fifteen. Dulcinea wants her sons back..J.B. was well liked by his ranch hands. There are two strong women, Dulcinea, J.B.'s widow who knows she has to take over the ranch and not be intimidated by Drum, to be a mother to her sons who feel she has deserted her boys by leaving. Another strong woman is Rose, a Sioux Indian lady. She is married, has a young daughter, and is the sister of the murdered Star. The two ladies met when Dulcinea was teaching at the Rosebud School. The children were not to be taught about their own culture, but to be turned into whites. Rose was a maid, not thought to be very intelligent. Indians were not well thought of in this place and time.Other characters are Cullen, nineteen, a compassionate man, sensitive, who would never hurt anyone. Surprising since his grandfather was so hard and brutal on him, the cowboys who worked the ranches, Higgs, the foreman, and Vera, his wife, who runs off with another man. He leaves to find her. Life in the Sand Hills is hard and remote especially in those times. There is the lawyer, tall and handsome, from the east, but originally from England. What is he doing in such rough country lacking the sophistication and elegant living in the east? There is mineral and subsurface rights that some are interested in buying. Fighting over land, father and son, characters wanting to use this wild country. Hard as it is, some love the Sand Hills and would be nowhere else. Ms Agee writes well about this land and its far apart towns, animals, vegetation. I have driven through the Sand Hill, different, not overpopulated, plenty of wide open country.