US Deputy Marshal Don Lovell works the Indian Territory "on the scout" out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1878. He is known for a strong handshake and a firm disposition, and for making good his word. Women generally find him ominous and aloof, yet a few know better. What makes the difference is impossible to predict and, for the most part, a woman who doesn't know his character is intimidated. He has that effect upon many people—men and women alike. In any company Lovell is always the lone wolf, separate and quiet about his own affairs. No one knows all there is to know about him. He keeps his distance to preserve a measure of anonymity, which is his chief measure of security.

In Lovell's Prize Don Lovell follows trails of rape, torture, shooting, and death. He runs every risk to carry out his mission of taking the law to a lawless land. Lovell's Prize is a thrilling tale of action set in the savage reality, not the misty romance, of the nineteenth-century American West, where all prizes are won at dire human cost.