"California, 1884: A clipper ship belonging to Connelly-Wilson Shipping is attacked by a mysterious black vessel which displays amazing speed and deadly weaponry. The clipper ship is sunk with all hands, save one survivor. Only days later, another Connelly-Wilson ship is sunk by the same black vessel; this time there are no survivors. Weeks later, a Connelly railroad trestle is dynamited, with loss of life narrowly avoided. Then another, sending a freight train to the bottom of a deep ravine. And shockingly, a young woman, heiress to the reins of the Connelly-Wilson empire, disappears into the Sierra-Nevada Mountains in the dead of winter. After seventeen years in hiding, an old evil has arisen again, one who nevertheless has still not learned one fatal lesson: never cross a Connelly woman. ... a legend passes on, and a new one is born, as the granddaughter of the Angel of the Gold Rush takes the stage."--P. [4] of cover.