Carter Crossing, Mississippi. 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A coverup. A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington. Reacher is ordered undercover -- to find out everything he can, to control the local police, and then to vanish.

1947. An enigmatic man driving a fine Lincoln convertible and accompanied by a beautiful blonde, comes to a small West Texas town. Ostensibly, his purpose is to get into a poker game that had been going at the infamous Weilbach Hotel. But as the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that he has a darker motive, one that centers on a sinister local banker named Clifton Robillard. Aided by an old-time hood named Chicken Little, the protagonist maneuvers...

Nic Pizzolatto, creator of HBO's True Detective, was a fiction finalist for the National Magazine Award and his story collection, Between Here and the Yellow Sea, was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. His story "The Guild of Thieves" was the Honorable Mention for the 2007 Pushcart Prize, and George Pelecanos selected his "Wanted Man" for inclusion in the Best American Mystery Stories 2009. Now Pizzolatto expands his talents...