I’m so pleased to show off this excellent cover for In Defense of Delia which will be released by Five Star/Cengage on November 23, 2022.

 

 

Cover design credit: Kathy Heming

 

Synopsis:

1838: Delia Pritchard gets a chilly reception when she returns to Sangamon, Illinois, after a thirteen-year absence. She’s riding a Palouse stallion, is dressed like a man, has a bullet in her shoulder, and leads a horse with a seven-year-old black boy astride.

Some think Delia left at the age of sixteen because she killed her parents and set fire to their cabin with the bodies inside. It is also rumored that Delia runs with outlaws and that she shot a lawman.

When Doc Hemmer insists Delia and the boy remain in Sangamon while she recuperates from surgery, he doesn’t realize a vicious gang known as the Biedler brothers is on her trail. Preacher John Claymore, also unaware of the danger, wants to meet Doc’s patient with the beautiful eyes.

Farmer Annie Gray kills one of the Biedlers and triggers a violent response from the gang. Delia knows the brothers will be relentless. She brought this disaster down on the town and its residents. Can she save them all?