This powerful start to the Ransom Canyon series will be enjoyed by anyone who reads modern western romances. Staten Kirkland still runs his family's ranch although his wife has died and his teen son was killed when his car ran off the road into RANSOM CANYON. Staten just gets through life using work as a prop. He has taken a lover, Quinn O'Grady, a single woman in her forties. But their relationship hardly exists outside her cabin. Something is about to change.

Lauren Brigman, the sheriff's daughter, shows us the other end of the generational cycle. She and her school friends are too young to drive, so their walk past a spooky abandoned house lures them in to look for ghosts. There's not much else to do in a small town. One lad falls through a floor, and the emergency services have to be summoned. A lad called Lucas quietly works to save others and Lauren, fearing she's in for a scolding, decides he's the most genuine guy she knows. Meanwhile, a bus pulls up in Crossroads, Texas, and lets off Yancy Grey, a man out of prison with plans to get rich somehow.

I enjoyed Yancy's first day of work at handyman jobs in a retirement community, surprising himself by making friends among normal people. He's no reformed character, but I found myself wanting him to go straight. Staten's grandmother lives a busy life in this retirement community, and her chats with Staten start tying the disparate stories together. Crime comes to the area, aided by the fact that people live far apart and the winding roads are unlit. The whole town and wider spread of ranchers are involved, and I liked watching the story play out with an edge of danger.

To me Lauren is not yet an interesting character, busy waiting to turn sixteen and then unsure what to do about it since she's not allowed date. However at the end we get an introduction to the next book in this series, which will be called Rustler's Moon, and no doubt the determined teen will be growing and learning through the series. The adult characters are the focus of this first instalment and in RANSOM CANYON Jodi Thomas introduces people we almost feel we know, with understandable dilemmas and ambitions. She makes me want to drop in again next week and say howdy.