Hellfire Canyon

The Story

A hundred and forty-five years after a slingblade came down on Alf Bolin's wicked head, the notorious outlaw lives again in this wickedly original novel by author Max McCoy. Hellfire Canyon won the Spur Award for Best Paperback Original by the Western Writers of America and was named a Notable Book by the Kansas State Library.Bolin - a real-life killer who terrorized this neck of the Ozarks from a fortress-like limestone formation called Murder Rocks - plays mentor to a budding fiddler and outlaw named Jacob Gamble. Hellfire Canyon follows Jacob and his mother, Eliza, from northeastern Missouri to the wilds of Taney County, where he befriends the red-headed, literature-quoting Bolin.McCoy, an award-winning author and investigative reporter, often sets many of his novels in Missouri, including the 2004 thriller, The Moon Pool. His other books include four original Indiana Jones adventures for Bantam/LucasFilm and the novelization of Steven Spielberg's epic miniseries, Into the West.