I've had this book sitting on a shelf in my collection for some time, at least a decade I would imagine. I've picked it up several times and thought about reading it only to put it back and choose something else. Finally I decided that it was about time to not return it to the shelf but to finally give it a try. I'm glad I did.

Clarke County is space station, a self-contained community some 200, 000 miles away from Earth. In many ways this is a superbly successful colony, all but self-sufficient and very peaceful and stable.

This stability though is about to be threatened by outside events. Macy Westmoreland has decided the time is right to escape her abusive relationship with Mafia boss Tony Salvatore. She decides to steal some computer disks from Salvatore's safe to give her some bargaining chips and book passage to Clarke County.

Salvatore however is not a man to let her go easily – that would be too much of an affront to his honour, and also she has taken his most precious disks. So he sends a ruthless hitman to retrieve these disks and deal with Westmoreland.

And the only hope for the survival of the Space Station comes in the form of the County Sheriff, Native American John Bigthorn.

The big plus I can see in this book, as far as I am concerned, is the amazing readability. The prose her is so straightforward, so comfortable. I'd never read anything by Allen Steele before this book so I was not overly sure what to expect. Well if you want a comparison the easiest I can find is that this is the book that you would get if Mike Resnick wrote near future sf instead of his more normal galaxy-wide space opera.

The plot is okay, it's not brilliant by any stretch. But it is very well realised, the characters are engaging, and I like the station itself. And the author has brought in an extra ingredient that I found inspired. During the events in this book there is a religious convention occurring. The religion in question being The First Church of the Twentieth Century Saints, Elvis Has Risen. Yep, a religion where the followers believe that Elvis has been reborn and is the new messiah – lead, of course, by a total conman. Brilliant touch! Helps lift the book up and give it some depth.

Synopsis
The eclectic group of settlers--hackers, tourists, members of the Church of Elvis--on Clarke County, mankind's first orbiting space colony, all desire freedom, and will get it at any cost.