The Canyon of Bones (Skye's West) [Kindle Edition]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Spur Award–winner Wheeler adds this splendid 15th volume (after Fire Arrow) to his superb Skye's West series about redoubtable mountain man Barnaby Skye. It is the late 1850s and Skye, a deserter from the Royal Navy, and his Crow Indian wife, Victoria, agree that Skye should take a second Indian wife to produce a son. Skye marries Blue Dawn, a beautiful, young Shoshone woman, and the trio is hired to guide brash English explorer and journalist Graves Duplessis Mercer to see a mysterious canyon full of dinosaur bones. Skye, happy with two wives, doesn't care much for Mercer, whose arrogance and selfishness endangers the whole party. The details of Skye's courtship and wedding are hilarious, and the fieldcraft the group must employ to survive the harsh wilderness is suspenseful and instructive. Wheeler is one of the best western authors around today. He doesn't rely on epic battles or gunfights to tell his stories, relying instead on fascinating characters, vivid imagery, subtle action and carefully drawn historical detail. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

One of western fiction's most enduring and affable characters is Barnaby Skye, once a press-ganged British seaman, now a mountain man living among a Crow Indian tribe. In his umpteenth adventure, Skye meets another Englishman, Graves Duplessis Mercer, an alternately maddening and likable journalist modeled after Sir Richard Burton, who travels the world in search of shocking stories with which to regale the prim Londoners back home. After much wheedling, Skye agrees to guide him to a graveyard of ancient, monstrous bones. As the story ambles along, they navigate all manner of hiccups and hardships, including devastating prairie fires, superstitious natives, and Mercer's near-incessant whining that he'd really much rather uncover hidden pygmyesque polygamous cannibal tribes or other such sensationalism. Overall, this is genial, character-driven western writing with plenty of action and appreciation for Native American customs. Skye's foul-mouthed Crow wife, Victoria, is absolutely delightful, and even his cantankerous horse, Jawbone, has more personality than most western leads. Not just for fans of the series, this will appeal to anyone in search of solidly adventuresome tales. Ian Chipman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 439 KB
• Print Length: 337 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0765351730
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1 edition (January 2, 2008)
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000QTEA88
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #270,520 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Richard Wheeler began a late-in-life career as a novelist at age fifty, and by his seventy-fifth year had written seventy novels. He began life as a newsman and later became a book editor, but turned to fiction full time in 1985.

He started by writing traditional westerns but soon was writing large-scale historical novels and then biographical novels. In recent years he has been writing mysteries as well, some as Axel Brand. His Lieutenant Joe Sonntag series occurs in 1940s Milwaukee, and focuses on life in a big, smoky industrial city just after World War Two.

He has won numerous awards, including the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West, and also six Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. He has received more Spur Awards than any other living author.

He grew up in Wisconsin and migrated West, holding newspaper jobs in Phoenix, Oakland, Carson City, and Billings. His wife, Sue Hart, is an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.

He has been focusing more and more on biographical novels. One of these, published in March, 2010, is called Snowbound, and is about the explorer John C. Fremont's tragic fourth expedition. It won a Spur Award.


For a quarter of a century he's largely made his living from writing fiction. That reality astonishes him. In his mid-seventies now, he is still dreaming up new stories.

Note: There are other Richard Wheelers writing books. One is an historian of the Civil War, and another writes histories of the Marine Corps, and another is a social scientist. Richard S. Wheeler is the novelist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, February 5, 2008

By 

Evan the Dweezil (A Place-Sort Of, Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Canyon of Bones (Skye's West) (Mass Market Paperback)

I don't typically read Westerns. However, I am attracted to books with titles that I like. I decided to take this one home and give it a shot. I was absolutely amazed at Mr. Wheeler's abilities to combine very real characters with the descriptions of their actions and surroundings.

Barnaby Skye is a rich and quirky hero, his wives make for a fabulous trio and interesting portrait of the melding of cultures in pre-Civil War America.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine Writing in an Overlooked Genre, May 25, 2009

By 

Kregg Jorgenson "Writetrak" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Canyon of Bones (Skye's West) (Mass Market Paperback)

There's a certain snobbery that easily dismisses westerns, which is a pity actually, because the genre is rich with history, storyline, and action/adventure the likes of any good thriller writer can envy. Such is the case with THE CANYON OF BONES by Richard S. Wheeler.
With this Barnaby Skye continuation we find him getting older and wondering if he should take a second Indian wife. We also find him taking on a Sir Richard Burton kind of figure who wants to record the significance of the Canyon of Bones, and of course, the trouble and danger that goes along with it.
It's easy to see why Wheeler is a five-time Spur Award winner just as it is easy to see that he's a talented writer whose work transcends genre. This isn't hack writing or a simple plot or storyline. No, this is real talent and the kind of book that aspiring writers need to be reading if their goal is to become a professional writer worthy of the title. You want something original? It's here. You want action/adventure? It's here too! You want history, romance, and a look into the complicated human condition? Then open the book and start reading.
The next time you're in a bookstore stop and open a few books in the 'western' section and see what I mean. Grab a handful of books by different authors, Wheeler among them, and see if they don't measure up to anything that's on the popular racks today.
If you start with Wheeler and his Barnaby Skye series you're in for a long treat.
Good stuff here.