Dollarado, by Bruce Miller

After his Indian friend and partner is gunned down in the Dollarado territories, the now-cynical Masked Rider and his nephew, Van, pursue Santo’s killers. In a violent and often twisted search for justice, the Masked Man learns that the old ways of decency and goodness no longer work. In a part of the U.S. that has lost its basic American values, the Masked Rider must relearn what it takes to win the fight for justice and bring down the corrupt and autocratic Governor of the Territories. Con-man Hump Powers runs Dollarado with snake-oil charm and a race-baiting formula that appeals to the wounded psyches of those who fought for the lost cause. It is a new early West — one that shatters the vision we learned from the movies and early television.

Part adventure, part satire, with a tip of the hat to Zane Grey, Cormac McCarthy, and L. Frank Baum, this Western gallops along, working on several levels, and ultimately says something about what we were as a country, and where, unfortunately, we might be heading now.