The Devil’s Left Hand

"Bannack was on fire by the time that Joseph got there. Not a literal fire with smoke and flame, but an unstoppable mess of greed and grit..."

Joseph Milton moved his family out west to escape the horrors of the American Civil War but found that Big Sky Country was just as deadly as anything back east. The town of Bannack has been overrun by a band of outlaw road agents, the Innocents, who threaten to plunder all the profits of the gold mining town.

After a fateful encounter with the gang, Joseph is torn between a sense of duty to his fellow man and his commitment to his family. After all, Sheriff Henry Plummer has everything covered, doesn't he?

The Devil's Left Hand is a Spur Award-winning (“Best Western Short Fiction” in 2025) historical fiction Western based on true happenings that occurred in Bannack, Montana, during it's time as a part of the Idaho Territory in 1864. If you love the Old West, American history, or are a junkie for thrilling fiction, then this is the short story for you.