With the main character’s name Ruby Fortune, the novel’s setting in the Arizona Territory at the turn into the 20th century and its title “Hardland,” the reader can guess this read is going to be quite a ride. And it is from the first page, when a woman who is more philosophical and self-assured than tough talking, introduces herself with the statement – not confession – that she killed her husband.

She is wounded from that deed as well. While she wonders if she will ever be forgiven, she understands she would do it again. All that is in the first two pages. Historical novelist...