Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen

Thrust to the mercy of the Mississippi river, thirteen-year-old Rowdy floats away from his burning farmhouse, dead father, and gang of murderous bandits. His perilous journey of survival begins on the Mississippi where he lives and works as a crewman on the cargo ship Delilah. At age sixteen, he heads west to Dodge City, Kansas, leaving the river and a slew of dead pirates in his wake. Having ignored warnings not to get tangled up with Dodge City's most powerful rancher, Patrick Byrne, Rowdy acquires a sickly horse from him that would change his life forever. Time and attention see this horse heal into the fastest horse around and now Byrne wants it back! Rowdy, faced with a life or death decision, is forced to flee, barely escaping westward to Lincoln, New Mexico, but he has been tracked by hired guns. Blood, bullets, and tears bring Rowdy's world to a showdown as he takes what could be a final stand. Rowdy has the mental and physical scars to prove his worth, but his actions are what define him. Fighting for what was right is his code. Living life for others becomes his way. Staring danger in the face is what he must do if he is truly Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen.