Winning Hands — William Thrash

Samuel Simmons is a former Confederate artillery officer making his way through the Reconstruction South. A gambling man, he has resisted the lure of the frontier West. But trouble seems to find Sam with ease and he finds himself on the move from one mishap to the next. At the end of his rope in Louisiana, he finally determines to head out West. But he receives a letter from his dead brother's wife pleading for his aid against a Reconstruction evil preying upon her and her neighbors. Caroline Simmons, widow and schoolteacher, has watched her life crumble around her. When her schoolhouse is burned to the ground after she asks one too many questions, she turns to her only remaining living relative: her brother-in-law. Together they must overcome the obstacles facing them and restore dignity to a once proud people. Dealt unfair and unjust hands during Reconstruction, their struggle against corruption ends in blood.