Frontier Life Fiction

So, today is Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day, a holiday started by blogger Chris Jepsen in 2010 as a fun way to commemorate an important part of California's history.  I took todays theme inspired by this and went with the wider genre of Frontier Life Fiction.  Here are the 10 I'm featuring today!

Allingham: The Long Journey Home by John Horst - US Marshal and veteran copper of New York's Five Points, Allingham has established himself as a stellar lawman in the Arizona territory. He was a man once terse and tough, even bent on ending his own life, until he found a home, a family, in the unforgiving western land. Now he faces his greatest test, the loss of everything he holds dear and a range war to rival anything that Hell's Kitchen could ever offer. Follow Allingham as he rides with the cast of characters we've grown to know and love in the first Allingham stories: Warrior Saint, Hira Singh, Rosario, Old Pop, Pierce Hall, the O'Shaughnessy brothers, and some new characters as well; Pinkerton detective and longtime friend Stosh Gorski, Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens, and the grizzled and tough prospector, Hugh Auld. Will Allingham be able to survive the onslaught of physical and spiritual challenges? Will his grief be too much to bear? Will he be able to rectify the injustices in time?

Backed to the Wall by C. M. Wendelboe - Outlaws--fueled by cruelty they became addicted to during the War Between the States--roam and prey upon anyone unfortunate enough to cross their trail. In the Dakota Territory of the 1870s, the line between outlaw and lawman is often blurred. Some of those sworn to protect the helpless might exploit them instead. And some of those deemed hard cases might redeem themselves. Backed to the Wall plunges both a lawman and an outlaw into a blood battle that only one of them can survive--if the Indian raiders terrorizing homesteaders and cattlemen don't kill them first.

Escape to Fort Abercrombie by Candace Simar - Mama and little Elsa are kidnapped by Indians. As his father lies dying from a Sioux arrow in his chest, fourteen-year-old Ryker Landstad promises to take the nine-year-old twins to safety and rescue Mama and Elsa. They're in the middle of an Indian war, and it's risky to travel the main road to Fort Abercrombie. Ryker and the twins must cut across country through ten miles of prairie grass taller than a grown man. It takes all Ryker's gumption, and a little help from angels, to reach the fort, only to discover that Fort Abercrombie is besieged by 500 warriors. Ryker refuses to give up. He has no choice. He made a promise.

Flight of the Hawk: The River by W. Michael Gear - Once again, New York Times and internationally best-selling author W. Michael Gear turns his master's hand to the frontier West. In the vein of his best-selling Coyote Summer, Gear now takes us to the 1812 Missouri Fur Trade. An intimate of the Burr conspiracy, the condemned and hounded John Tylor signs on as boatman with Manuel Lisa's expedition. But the river is now contested as the British, Spanish, and other fur companies prepare to break Lisa's hold. As the expedition battles its way up the violent river, Fenway McKeever lurks in Tylor's shadow. Not only is the half-mad McKeever paid to kill Tylor, but he's convinced himself that by destroying Lisa's expedition, he can sell his services to the highest bidder.

The Frontiersman by William W. Johnstone - Seventeen-year-old Breckinridge Wallace is a pioneer whose fearless instincts have finally landed him in trouble with an Indian enemy. Now, from the bustling streets of St. Louis to the vast stillness of the Missouri headwaters, Breck is discovering a new world of splendor, violence, promise and betrayal on his way to the new frontier. Most of all, he is clawing his way to manhood behind the law of the gun.

Hour Glass by Michelle Rene - After their pa falls deathly ill with smallpox, Jimmy and his sister, Hour, travel into Deadwood, South Dakota to seek help. While their pa is in quarantine, the two form unbreakable bonds with the surrogate family that emerges from the tragedy of loss. In a place where life is fragile and families are ripped apart by disease, death, and desperation, a surprising collection of Deadwood's inhabitants surround Jimmy, Hour, and Jane. There, in the most unexpected of places, they find a family protecting them from the uncertainty and chaos that surrounds them all.

Many Sparrows by Lori Benton - In 1774, the Ohio-Kentucky frontier pulses with rising tension and brutal conflicts as Colonists push westward and encroach upon Native American territories. The young Inglesby family is making the perilous journey west when an accident sends Philip back to Redstone Fort for help, forcing him to leave his pregnant wife, Clare, and their four-year-old son Jacob on a remote mountain trail.

The O'Malleys of Texas by Dusty Richards - During the Civil War, Texas Rangers Harp and Long John O'Malley patrol a vast, unguarded range, protecting the families of soldiers off fighting at the front. At war's end, the Rangers are disbanded, and the O'Malleys sign on with a cattle drive across the most treacherous and deadly stretch of the American frontier from Texas to Sedalia.

The Open Road by M. M. Holaday - After four years of adventure in the frontier, Win Avery returns to his hometown on the edge of the prairie and tracks down his childhood friend, Jeb Dawson. Jeb has just lost his parents, and, in his efforts to console him, Win convinces his friend to travel west with him -- to see the frontier before it is settled, while it is still unspoiled wilderness. They embark on a free-spirited adventure, but their journey sidetracks when they befriend Meg Jameson, an accomplished horsewoman, lost on the Nebraska prairie. Traveling together through the Rocky Mountain foothills, they run into Gray Wolf, an Arapaho determined to live on his own terms off the reservation. As their paths and purposes converge, the course of each of their lives changes forever. Although the open road continues to call to Win, and Meg moves forward with her plans to ranch with the aged liveryman who raised her, the bonds between the four friends tie their fates together through the decades that follow, as they fight the forces striving to close the frontier and as they witness a way of life disappear.

Wildwood by Elinor Florence - Broke and desperate, single mother Molly Bannister of Phoenix, Arizona, accepts the stern condition laid down in her great-aunt's will: to spend one year in an abandoned farmhouse deep in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. If she does, she will be able to sell the farm and fund her four-year-old daughter Bridget's badly needed medical treatments. With grim determination, Molly teaches herself the basic pioneer skills, chopping firewood and washing her clothes with melted snow. Only the journal written by her courageous great-aunt, the land's original homesteader, inspires her to struggle on. But there's another obstacle to her success: an idealistic young farmer, Colin McKay, wants to thwart Molly's strategy to sell her great-aunt's farm to an oil company. Will Molly be cheated out of her inheritance after all? Will she and Bridget survive the savage winter, and what comes next? Not only their financial future, but their very lives are at stake.