Jamison Everett, a shy and lonely man with few friends, is a retired high school English teacher. When his artist sister, Monna, who is suffering from Parkinson's Disease, calls and asks for his help, he reluctantly agrees to leave his apartment in Minneapolis and temporarily relocate to her remote Montana town. Perhaps, in caring for his sister, he will find the friendship he longs for. But Monna's fiercely independent husband, Ben, has a different game plan. Parkinson's has robbed Monna of her ability to paint, and if the doctors won't cure her, then by god he'll do it — by sheer force of will. Jamison, summoning his courage, offers to help, and an alliance is born. Yet neither man can know how much their nascent friendship will ask of them. Only Monna senses what is coming.

Red is the Fastest Color is set in a small town in rural Montana’s Shields Valley—cowboy country by anyone’s definition.

But this book is not about cowboys or the loss of the ranching way of life. It’s a beautiful literary novel about a small family tragedy among the many that occur everyday in rural towns across the west.

Fans of west coast literary legend Pete Fromm will love Carty’s similarly quiet and elegant prose and profoundly moving yet utterly complex look at the meaning of love and true friendship. Carty’s pages are brimming with an authentic portrayal of day-to-day Montana life, which we're confident readers will love.