Captain Stephen Parker is a man who thinks he has seen everything. Having survived the Civil War as a cavalry officer, he now works as a soldier of fortune. After ten years of adventure, he decides to start anew, and interviews with the remarkable Doctor Townsend, who has spent his entire life investigating the supernatural. Parker's natural tendency is to be skeptical of such matters, but only takes the job for his romantic interest in Townsend's mysterious and beautiful daughter Ellen, and because he is penniless. Soon enough, this professional soldier is involved in horrors that test the very edge of his sanity. Author's Note: Of Ghosts and Gunpowder is written as an American version of the famed Sherlock Holmes stories. In my youth, I was enamored with the cases of Holmes, but was disappointed by the sometimes mundane solutions. Instead, I wanted a darker, more mysterious world filled with unknown terrors. This is my spin on the classic detective story, but with unearthly solutions.