Cora Ogelsby and her husband Ben started battling evil monsters over 15 years ago, but no matter how many of them are eradicated, something new always comes along. Cora's unique ability to locate and eliminate supernatural beings has brought her to Leadville, Colorado, where she encounters a new killer -- a "wendigo" -- which puts her skills to the test. Lamenting that age is wearing her down, causing more aches and pains, and her draw isn't quite as quick as before, maybe it's time for a different line of work. She just doesn't know anything else and then the decision is taken out of her hands.

After collecting her fee from the local sheriff and set to leave town after killing the wendigo, Cora is summoned to the home of Lord Harcourt on the outskirts of Leadville. He offers a huge sum of money for her services. It seems a nest of vampires have taken up residence in his silver mining operation and every day more miners are lost to them. But something is different about the leader of this horde of vampires, which Cora soon learns after killing some of them in the mine shafts. What she doesn't realize is that she's encountered this horrible being before and has blocked it from her mind. A confrontation 10 years ago has come back to haunt Cora, and it has affected her life in more ways than she can fathom. When she finally faces the truth, will she be able to survive the shock?

After a bit of a slow start to THE DEAD OF WINTER, it finally picked up speed and fully captured my interest in knowing the outcome. The idea of how easily residents of the old Wild West accepted that supernatural creatures existed among them took some getting used to, but Lee Collins did a fine job of developing the characters in a uniquely interesting plot.