Tagline: Before a World War made them great, the times and The Ridge made them strong. The depression is going full force in 1937 Wynne, Arkansas, but while the Bentwood family has it easier than most, 17 year-old Marshall wants out. The only thing in his life he loves, other than his family, is The Ridge, a beautiful low mountain range near his home. Regardless, he’s sick of farming, sick of mules, sick of plowing, sick of his life and is determined to leave and see the world. He gets his wish, but at a deadly price. After crossing two bootleggers to aid a friend, Marshall is target by these men to be an example. But, by mistake they beat his 18 year-old look-a-like brother, James, to death. Knowing the courts are owned by the county’s moon shiners and that, at best, they will get just a “slap on the wrist” Marshall, one of the best hunters and shots in the county, decides to meet out justice to fit the crime, killing the two men from ambush. When he’s finished, he knows he’s done what is right, but he also knows that further retribution will ensue if he remains in the area. So he leaves home setting out across the southwest by rail and by thumb never expecting to return home and hoping the matter will end there. Along the way he meets a cast of characters, both real and fictional, which only a worldwide depression could create. Destitute families, traveling minstrels and railroad “bulls”, among others, cross his path. He also comes face-to-face with massive human loss in the form of an actual Texas school disaster which is still the greatest of it’s kind. All of these things come together to test the boy’s fortitude, honesty, faith and sense of right and wrong. But even though Marshall leaves, not satisfied to just let the matter drop, the vicious father and two ruthless sisters of one of the bootleggers kidnap Marshall’s six year-old sister. Knowing she will be killed if Marshall isn’t found and returned, a four-state hunt for the teen hunt ensues. Once found, the race is on to get Marshall back to Wynne before the kidnapper’s deadline. What follows is a deadly meeting in the snowy woods of the Arkansas countryside and The Ridge which finally brings this bloody family feud to a stunning conclusion. The story of Marshall Bentwood, is a story of courage and family loyalty set against the depression and the rumblings of a coming world war. In The Ridge: Justice Unbound, the reader sees the type of character, Tom Brokaw called, the Greatest Generation.