Excerpt from the Ultimate Series

Michael Winstead’s third novel,
Ultimate Truth is available on Amazon.

In preparation for a final showdown with the Russian spy who has become his mortal enemy, Judge Raleigh Westlake returns to the lands of his American Indian ancestors. He has come to consider good and evil, and where he is prepared to make his stand.

In the tribal archives he had researched the methods used by the war parties of his ancestors, reading accounts that caused him to grimace. Crude drawings depicted prisoners burned at the stake or flayed, anguish on their faces. And he suspected that, despite the advent of constitutions and laws written in lofty rooms, man had not changed much over the centuries. Men still committed barbarous acts, and the enabling of huge institutions to deal with these men, and occasionally women, had done little to alter that behavior.

He wondered if other lawmen felt the same, if they questioned the viability of a system that processed the violent and depraved in an incessant circle, abiding rules written in stone capitols. Did they ever ponder the impact that such restraint had on their very beings? These were questions he could not ask of anyone, of course, but he had come to understand that vanquishing his desire for revenge, subduing the base urge to take an eye for an eye, had damaged him in ways that he could not describe. And thus he had chosen this course. Or, it had chosen him.

His wolves represented the ultimate thruth: winthin us all exist good and evil, each able to dominate in the right circumstances, with the proper feeding. Out of necessity he had made himself deaf to the howls of his wolves. Now he was listening. Judge Westlake prepared himself this way, shunning the black robe for war paint and buckskin, and when the sun first spread peach-colored rays onto the mountain ridge, he rose and extended his arms to it, feeling its welcoming warmth upon his face.

If Michael Winstead’s works have resonated with you, please take a moment to submit a review on Amazon or leave your comments on this site’s Contacts page. Thank you.