Last Rider, First Line

By Samuel DenHartog

The frontier is shifting, and so are the hearts that ride it. A fierce Pony Express courier who trusts speed and dust meets a telegraph lineman who hears music in the click of the key, and their first collision of grit and wire sparks more than rivalry. Town loyalties split, tempers rise with the summer wind, and two determined strangers learn that courage comes in many forms. As messenger and maker work the same valley from different sides, a wary respect turns into a pull neither planned.

Saboteurs strike at poles and riders while storms, stampedes, and a swollen ford test every mile of progress. A stagecoach is steadied on a rim road, a grassfire is held at the line, and a crew is saved by hands that will not let go. Between trials come quiet hours with coffee, small lessons in Morse, and memories that reveal why each of them stays in the fight. With every shared rescue and near miss, the line between duty and longing grows thin.

When a final relay and a final splice race the same sunset, a single plea must cross the gap before anger hardens into violence. Can hoofbeats and humming wire find the same rhythm when the valley holds its breath. Will a rider built for the open trail and a builder of signals choose a future that does not betray the past. If love offers a bridge between old paths and new lines, which truth will they claim, and what will it cost.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FXNB46G1
• ISBN13: 9798271405686
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"