Hallowed Ground

Gideon Thorn follows a lead from southern California to Colorado Territory, on the eve of statehood, hoping he may solve a gruesome riddle from his own childhood. When he was two years old, a fearsome beast—believed by some to be an ordinary grizzly bear—had massacred his parents and Thorn's older brother, leaving Gideon with a long scar across his scalp that turned the hair surrounding it stark white. Now, something has returned to Colorado, killing wantonly, devouring whole settler families, and Thorn cannot avoid revisiting the scene of his great loss, the butchery that made him what he is today. Accompanied by friend and mentor Obi Magoro, as well as newswoman Dinah Pilcher from California, Gideon confronts his early fear—perhaps his very fate—on hallowed ground.