Book excerpt: Fresh from the East, young Sayers Croft arrives in the desert town of Deadman's Bend to set up a photographic studio. The local hero, with a price on his head, is gunned down before Croft's camera, and Croft finds he has suddenly earned unwanted 'blood money' and the nickname of Judas. No matter where he flees his reputation catches up with him, and Judas has to move on. At last Judas stops running, but as he follows the blood trail he finds being a gun-slinger brings its own problems. If he blasts away the hated name of Judas, who - or what - has he become?