Nicholas Barnes

An honest marshal in a corrupt mining colony on Io, Jupiter's sunless third moon, is determined to confront a violent drug ring even though it may cost him his life. After his wife angrily deserts him, he waits alone for the arrival of killers hired by the company to eliminate him.

Young Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the mountains where she discovers the liberty and the beauty of Swiss landscapes. Later when Heidi is forced to become a companion to a young invalid girl in a big town, she discovers just how much she misses the mountains, her grandfather, and her friend Peter.