Richard Prosch has roped together a new collection of stories with themes as vast as the wide-open frontier and as close as the human heart. In Waking Face, a man is tortured by the face of his wifes killer. In Hard Times for the Vanilla Cream Kid, a would-be bank robber invents the perfect heist, but does he have the stomach for it? In The Magic of Summerland, enemies of a long-gone war forge a culinary feast in Nebraska hill country. In The Testament of Eve, a girl comes to grips with her affinity for snakes and a heinous crime couched in shadows. In The Gentleman Detective, a boarding house guest deciphers a robbery.
