After two tours as a sniper in Iraq, Tommy Smith has returned to his former life as a cowboy and wilderness guide in California's Sierra Nevada, hoping to reclaim the simplicity of his youth and heal the wounds the world can't see. When, high on a mountain pass, he and his partner find the wrecked plane of a billionaire adventurer who disappeared months earlier, a seemingly innocent act triggers a breathtaking cycle of violence that threatens Tommy's world. Soon he is enmeshed in the struggle between the billionaire's trophy wife and wannabe drug lord son and their allies. Every effort to set things right draws him deeper into a bad situation and closer to needing those deadly skills that he had hoped to leave behind forever.
With lean, efficient prose and dialogue that crackles with repartee, Bart Paul has written a contemporary thriller of steadily mounting suspense and ruthless action. He captures both the beauty of the high mountain wilderness and the laconic rhythms of the outfitters' lives. In Tommy Smith he offers a protagonist whose cool competence, home-grown decency, and clarity of purpose in the face of danger suggest a brotherhood with heroes from the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy.

Sidney Franklin (1903-76) was the last person you'd expect to become a bullfighter. The streetwise son of a Russian Jewish cop, Franklin had an all-American boyhood in early twentieth-century Brooklyn, while hiding the fact that he was gay. A violent confrontation with his father sent him packing to Mexico City, where first he opened a business, then opened his mouth-bragging that Americans had the courage to become bullfighters. Training with iconic matador Rodolfo Gaona, Franklin's dare spawned a legend. Following years in small-town Mexican bullrings, he put his moxie where his mouth was, taking Spain by storm as the first American matador. Franklin's 1929 rise coincided with that of his friend Ernest Hemingway's, until a bull's horn in a most inappropriate place almost ended his career-and his life. Bart Paul illuminates the artistry and violence of the mysterious ritual of the bulls as he tells the story of this remarkable man, from life in revolutionary Mexico to triumphs in Spain, from the pages of Death in the Afternoon to the destructive vortex of Hemingway's affair with Martha Gellhorn during the bloody Spanish Civil War. This is the story of a gay man who triumphed over prejudice and adversity as he achieved what no American had ever accomplished, teaching even Hemingway lessons in grace, machismo, and respect.

Sidney Franklin (1903-76) was the last person you'd expect to become a bullfighter. The streetwise son of a Russian Jewish cop, Sidney had an all-American boyhood in early twentieth-century Brooklyn--while hiding the fact that he was gay. A violent confrontation with his father sent him packing to Mexico City, where first he opened a business, then he opened his mouth--bragging that Americans had the courage to become bullfighters. Training with iconic matador Rodolfo Gaona, Sidney's dare spawned a legend. Following years in small-town Mexican bullrings, he put his moxie where his mouth was, taking Spain by storm as the first American matador. Sidney's 1929 rise coincided with that of his friend Ernest Hemingway's, until a bull's horn in a most inappropriate place almost ended his career--and his life. Bart Paul illuminates the artistry and violence of the mysterious ritual of the bulls as he tells the story of this remarkable character, from Franklin's life in revolutionary Mexico to his triumphs in Spain, from the pages of "Death in the Afternoon" to the destructive vortex of Hemingway's affair with Martha Gellhorn during the bloody Spanish Civil War. This is the story of an unlikely hero--a gay man in the most masculine of worlds who triumphed over prejudice and adversity as he achieved what no American had ever accomplished, teaching even Hemingway lessons in grace, machismo, and respect.