During the hot summer of 1888, three men are travelling to Cheyenne aboard a passenger car of the Union Pacific - Luke Tisdale, Marcus Stokesbury and Ezra McPherson. Luke, a medical doctor, seeks to claim the body of his brother, who has been murdered. He also intends to find out who killed him. Marcus, a newspaper reporter from Atlanta, is in pursuit of a story. And the story is Ezra, a man of mystery who once called the West home. Ezra, haunted by a violent past, becomes caught up in the conflict between cattle barons and the homesteaders who have come to Wyoming in search of the promised land. He faces a choice - either run from the imminent range war or enter the field of battle. He knows that fighting comes with a price, and the price is dust and heat.

Walton Young, the author of Days of Dust and Heat, is senior professor of English at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, GA, where he teaches creative writing (fiction), Southern literature, and twentieth-century American literature. He received his PhD in English from the University of Georgia. His novel A Gathering of Eagles was published in 2011. He and his wife, Suzanne, live in Sautee-Nacoochee in the North Georgia mountains.