The Weight of the Badge

Here’s Jack’s latest book. 

Book two in the series A Buck Ledbetter Novel

Kansas City, 1877. Once a lawman of the wide-open prairie, U.S. Marshal William ‘Buck’ Ledbetter now shoulders a different kind of burden: keeping order in a bustling city where crime grows as fast as the railroads. From a courthouse window he can see the future rising, but he still feels the dust of the trail clinging to his boots.

At his side stands his son Jack, newly sworn in as deputy marshal, eager, steady, and carrying the same quiet grit Buck once rode with. Together they hunt fugitives through alleys and rail yards, learning that justice in the city comes with as many shadows as it does gun smoke.

At home, Buck’s wife Josephine makes their modest house a refuge filled with warmth and laughter, while young Lawrence toddles through the rooms with first words and bright curiosity. Annie, Buck’s strong-willed niece, dreams beyond the city limits, her eyes on books and classrooms instead of badges and pistols.

But every choice carries weight. For Buck, trading the saddle for a desk hasn’t lightened the burden, if anything, it’s heavier now, measured in family, duty, and the promise of a safer tomorrow. The Weight of the Badge is a story of courage, sacrifice, and the thin line between law and lawlessness in a changing frontier.

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