The greatest Western writers of the twenty-first century return to Fort Misery—where the lowliest dregs of the U. S. ARMY defend the driest patch of lawless desert against the gnarliest killers in the wild, wild West. Sometimes it takes a bad man with gun to stop another bad man with a gun . . .

They're not what you'd call 'the good guys.' They're a mangy pack of despicable deserters, thieves, mutineers, and worse. But as condemned soldiers in an overstretched army, they were given a choice: death by hanging or serving out their time in a hell on earth.

These men chose hell.

Located at the farthest edge of the Yuma Desert, Fort Grierson is a magnet for trouble. Vicious attacks by marauding Apaches and gunslinging outlaws are practically a daily occurrence—and the men holding down the fort are hardly any better. Hence the nickname Fort Misery.