Comanche County

Colorado Game Warden Birdie Hawkins is good at her job. Her monthly reports are always on time, her game counts are accurate, and none of the citations she has written have been thrown out of court.

It's life that she hasn't figured out.

Birdie lives by herself with a tomcat and piles of dirty laundry. The café owner in town leaves a dinner plate on her porch each evening; otherwise, Birdie lives off fast food, the sugary fruit pies she buys from the gas station, and diet soda. She doesn't own a dress, and all of her shoes lace up past her ankles. But every farmer in the county knows Birdie, and Birdie knows their wives, and each grandchild's name. She sells popcorn at the high school football games, and she's judged the pie-baking contest at the county fair for ten years. The county and everyone in it are Birdie's family.

The county bank foreclosed on Dice Silas's farm. His wife left him, and a string of low-paying jobs made him bitter. It's time for Dice and his group of followers to get even. They'll do it during the week of the Comanche County Fair.

It's up to Birdie to stop him.