The Flint Hills of Kansas is cattle country. It's the West without being the Far West . . . and it's a great place for stories. James Early, author Jerry Peterson's Kansas sheriff, appeared for the first time in the first two stories in this collection. In the first, "Dead Pool," Early must figure out who murdered a young woman during a flood. In the second, "Big Dam Foolishness," he's investigating the murder of the man who was out to block the construction of the Big Blue River Dam. You're going to be surprised who did it. Early appears in several other stories here, including Peterson's favorite, a 1952 election day story titled "My Name is Truman, T-H-O-M-P-S-O-N."