Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Western Heritage and Spur Award-winning authorIn 1913, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Lawrence, Kansas, Massacre, former bushwhacker Cole Younger stands before a preacher at a tent revival. "I was, I remain, and I will always be a wicked man," Younger states, taking a steptoward salvation. For a man like Cole Younger, there is much to confess.Born to a well-to-do Missouri family, Cole Younger dreams of being a good Christian, joining the Masons, marrying a good woman - maybe even following his parents' dream and becoming a preacher - and living in peace. But western Missouri and fate - along with Cole Younger's principles and temper - twist that road. As Cole's father tries to remain loyal to the Union, the family is tormented by Southern sympathizers. Eventually, a callous Union militia officer drives Cole into hiding, and he joins the bushwhacker raiders led by William Clarke Quantrill, where Cole befriends Frank James. When the ugly, brutal war ends, Cole still can't find peace. As a Confederate irregular, he remains a wanted man,so he reluctantly joins Frank and Jesse James and other disenfranchised bushwhackers - eventually including three of Cole's brothers - on a string of crimes across the West and South.In Hard Way Out of Hell, six-time Spur Award winner Johnny D. Boggs, among the most honored Western novelists at work today, lets Cole Younger tell his own story, warts and all. Well-researched, Hard Way Out of Hell is a novel of retribution and redemption.