Power in the Blood

Book excerpt: Siblings separated on an orphan train reunite years later to seek revenge in the lawless West in this “great novelist’s masterwork” (Stephen King). In 1869, the Dugan siblings board an orphan train in upstate New York. Adopted by different families at separate stops along the train’s westward journey, Clay, Zoe, and Drew vow to find one another as soon as they can, but tragic circumstances conspire against them. Clay avenges the brutal murder of his foster parents and becomes one of the most feared bounty hunters in the West. Raped by her new father, Zoe gives birth to a daughter whose vivid blue birthmark portends the gift of second sight. And Drew, abandoned in the desert by a religious fanatic, is rescued by renegade Apache brothers and falls in with a crowd of murderers, prostitutes, and bank robbers. When fate finally reunites the siblings, Zoe enlists Clay and Drew in a plot against a ruthless Colorado gold magnate bent on stealing her fortune. Decades spent practicing the art of survival have taught the Dugans that the odds are always stacked against them—but if they stopped to consider the odds, they would have been dead long ago. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a “great page-turning, stay-up-late-into-the-night-saga” and ideal for fans of Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy, Power in the Blood takes readers on an epic journey into the dark heart of the American frontier.