AS DANGEROUS AS UNSTABLE DYNAMITE! That's Sheriff Ross Kemp's assessment of Jessica Blackwood - darkly beautiful and married to the richest rancher around. Mysterious notes, a bizarre accusation, and the bushwhack murder of her mad and jealous husband shove Kemp into the biggest trouble of his life. Tried and convicted on a trumped-up charge, Kemp is sentenced to ten years in the state pen. His only hope is Jessica's lovely stepdaughter Ellen. But as Ellen begins to uncover the truth she comes up against a fiendish blackmailer and an evil-minded gunslick.

"I was traveling today and The Sheriff and the Widow was my book for the trip. There's nothing about it I didn't enjoy... I have two O'Keefe novels on the way and this has whetted my appetite for them." - David Cranmer, editor of Beat to a Pulp