<b><i>Arresting a Blanton was always going to be bad news, but things are about to get even worse for Sheriff Milt Kovak.</i></b><br> Everyone in Prophesy County knows that you don't mess with the dim-witted, in-bred Blantons. So when Milt gets a call to say that Darrell Blanton has shot dead his wife, he's expecting a rough ride.<br> <br> Arresting Darrell and putting him in the slammer may have been surprisingly easy, but things are about to get a whole lot worse. Eunice Blanton, Darrell's mama, takes a dim view of her son's arrest and decides to storm the Longbranch Inn where Milt's partner, Jean McDonnell is hosting a bachelorette party for Holly Humphries. With the women taken hostage, Eunice's terms are - unsurprisingly - simple: release her boy or a hostage gets shot every ten minutes. But there's a problem: Darrell has been found dead in his cell, with not a mark on him . . .