Pilot Evan Tanner faces a stark choice: pay off his debt to the bank by retrieving a starship for them--or go to prison. He tracks down the ship easily, but repossessing the Just Desserts proves more challenging. A politically-connected owner, corrupt officials, and deadly local customs put more than Evan's freedom at stake. He must gamble his life in an all-or-nothing struggle for victory. Will Tate grew up in a small southern Virginia town very much like the ones described in fiction. He is intimately familiar with the culture one finds in such places, and the personalities who inhabit them.
