When young Englishman John Tunstall arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, in 1876, he felt he had found the true frontier at last. Here was the toughest little spot in America, and he jumped eagerly into the game of getting rich. Lawyer McSween coated his own ambition with pious motives, but his worldly wife predicted disaster. Their marriage, and McSween's alliance with Tunstall against the local kingpin of the corrupt Santa Fe Ring, set the fuse for the bloody Lincoln County War. In the explosion of violence that followed, Billy Bonney slowly rose from obscurity to become "the" Kid of American legend. This is how it happened. ELIZABETH FACKER is the author of the critically-praised Seth Strummar series of western novels as well as novels of psychological suspense. Her latest mystery is When Kindness Fails. She lives in the Pecos Valley of New Mexico.