"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Murphy's law.

This seems the motto of the Border County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Leonard M. Blood, an American Indian.

Blood is ordered to serve a notice of eviction to Glenn Allen Ables for tax evasion. Blood senses a dangerous situation so asks for two deputies to accompany him. He knows that Ables is an anti government, white supremacist and survivalist. When Blood attempts to serve the papers, gunshots are fired. One of Blood's deputies is wounded and the other narrowly escapes.

The Huddleson, Montana sheriff's department doesn't take the shooting of a deputy well and soon, they are at the Ables' home. More gunshots are fired, the resutl is that one deputy is killed and, we find later, so is Ables' twelve year old daughter.

With the situation worsening, FBI negotiator John Banish is called in. We have competing authority figures in the Butte, Montana agent in charge, Perkins, the Huddleson sheriff, Moody, and finally, Deputy Fagin of the Marshal's Special Ops Group.

It is a chaotic situation. The story gives a dry factual account of the standoff, lasting days and becoming somewhat undramatic. The reader isn't given the character's thoughts and as result, the story comes across as an extremely lengthy news report.

We are given an interesting description of the intricacies of crime scene negotiation but the story does lack intensity. Strong dialogue but that wasn't enough to hold my interest. ( )