The Story

Set in 1883. Silas Mercer has ridden twenty years for Tobias McCallister, believing the work was righteous and the brotherhood was real. Then one last job, a train at Jackson Pass, turns out to be a trap, and for the first time in twenty years, Silas starts keeping his own count.

Cass rides back into his life. Eighteen years gone, running a crew of her own, and at her side a girl with a tarnished locket and a face Silas can't place. He should look harder.

The law is closing in. The papers call Tobias a phantom, a prophet, a terror. Silas knew the man, which is worse. And the reckoning he's spent a lifetime outrunning waits above the tree line, in winter, on a mountain that keeps what it's owed.

All That's Left Behind is a brutal, elegiac Western about inheritance, violence, and the terrible grace of a truth told too late.

The Book

Silas Mercer, an outlaw twenty years into the wrong life. Tobias McCallister, the man who made him. Cass, eighteen years gone and back with a crew of her own.

Anjeer State, Pacific Northwest, 1883. Five acts. 400 pages. Paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Made by Hand

Daniel Penton designed every page of this book himself. Over 25 years as an art director and illustrator went into the interior: original charcoal illustrations, a hand-drawn map of Anjeer State, and archival artifacts drawn from Silas Mercer's own journal. Nothing in the book was generated. All of it was made.

About Daniel Penton

Daniel Penton is a Canadian author, illustrator and art director based in Airdrie, Alberta. He spent over 25 years in graphic design, brand strategy and creative leadership before founding Blackridge Editions, his independent imprint for literary fiction with a transmedia backbone. All That's Left Behind is his debut novel. He can be reached at dan@danpenton.com and found at @danielpentonauthor.

The Inheritance Saga

Book One: All That's Left Behind (2026) 

Companion journal of Silas Mercer (In production)

Book Two: What We Became (planned)

Book Three: What Survives Us (planned)