Stars and Six-Shooters Hardcover – January 6, 2026

What happens when a Yale astronomer accidentally becomes a frontier marshal?A frontier comedy mystery in the tradition of Charles Portis's True Grit, Christopher Moore's Lamb, and Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers — the first Curious Case of Marshal Theodore Pembroke.Theodore Pembroke expected to spend his days studying celestial bodies at a remote Wyoming observatory. Instead, a clerical mix-up has left him wearing a tin star in Moon Creek — a lawless town where his three predecessors met violent ends, the corrupt mayor has plans that don't include scientific interference, and the only doctor in town treats his head wound while casually informing him he was sworn in while unconscious.Armed with probability charts, chemical compounds, and an unwavering faith in the scientific method, Teddy approaches frontier justice like no marshal before him. Bank robbers find themselves trapped in elaborate mechanical contraptions. Criminals are apprehended through statistical analysis of their behavioral patterns. And his lectures on ballistic physics have proven surprisingly effective at confusing armed desperados into surrender.But Moon Creek's troubles run deeper than common outlaws. Mayor Cornelius Buford is connected to Chicago interests moving mysterious cargo through the territory, and he'll stop at nothing to eliminate the peculiar new marshal asking too many questions.Fortunately, Teddy isn't alone. Chess Freeman, a former soldier with tracking skills that border on supernatural, becomes his deputy. Dr. Wilhelmina Sutter — driven West by an Eastern medical establishment that wouldn't tolerate a woman who believed in washing hands — offers her saloon as headquarters. And Mei-Lin Chen, whose laundry business makes her privy to every secret in town, provides intelligence no money could buy.Together, they'll discover that in the Wild West, a probability formula and a steady hand at the chalkboard might just outdraw a six-shooter.Stars and Six-Shooters combines fish-out-of-water comedy with frontier mystery, featuring a cast of outsiders who find strength in their differences — and a marshal whose greatest weapon is the one nobody saw coming.The first novel in the Marshal Theodore Pembroke series. Read more