Carol Buchanan writes historical Westerns about people forced to make dangerous choices to establish the law when gold, greed, and a vacuum of law led to ruffians' rule and a tolerance for murder. Her fascination with the Vigilantes of Montana began when she stood in the Hangman's Building in Virginia City, Montana, and heard the ropes creak. With a PhD in English & History, she teaches Montana's Vigilante History at Flathead Valley Community College in Northwest Montana. She has written four novels in the Vigilante Quartet: Book 1: God's Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana God's Thunderbolt won the 2009 Spur for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America. Daniel Stark, a New York attorney, came west to get enough gold to rescue his family from debt and disgrace. Because there is no law in this place, he joins a vigilance committee and becomes their prosecutor as they rid the gold fields of robbers and murderers, and establish the law. Book 2: The Devil in the Bottle Dan and the other Vigilantes have set up a People's Court, but Joseph (Jack) Slade on a drunken binge challenges them and flaunts the court's rule. Dan fears that if Slade prevails, criminals will once again terrorize people. The Vigilantes must decide how to uphold the court and the rule of law without hanging Slade, who has committed no capital crime. Book 3: Gold Under Ice Gold Under Ice was a 2011 Spur finalist for Best Long Novel from WWA. Dan Stark returns to New York with the gold he has collected. Because he does not have enough gold to redeem his family, he turns to gold trading. Then he discovers that his autocratic grandfather is scheming with a representative of the Bank of New York to steal his gold. Book 4: The Ghost at Beaverhead Rock (June 2016) Throughout 1864, the Montana Vigilantes have ruled Alder Gulch, but as Montana Territory is organized, a new Chief Justice warms the Vigilantes: "No more midnight executions." At the same time, Daniel Stark, the Vigilante prosecutor, is accused of stabbing a man in the back in order to win his wife and his gold claim. If the true killer is not discovered, Dan could be tried for the crime, convicted by a jury, and hanged. Even if the court acquitted him, he could be tried and hanged by the Vigilante tribunal. Even as he vows to find the murderer and prove himself innocent, the ghost of a hanged man haunts him. Is it a vision of his fate to come? Is it retribution? Dan tells the apparition, I do not believe in ghosts.
