Coyote Summer [Hardcover]

W. Michael Gear (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Heals like the Willow, a Native American woman, and a misfit white man, Richard Hamilton, fall in love with each other as a cruel winter approaches and dark secrets from the past threaten both the woman's tribe and their love. By the author of On the Morning River. 50,000 first printing."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

After coauthoring seven popular historical novels with his wife, Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Gear went solo with The Morning River (Forge, 1996). In this sequel, a young Native American woman and a white man share an ill-fated romance.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Gear (People of the Lightning, 1995, etc.) picks up the adventures of Boston Brahman Richard Hamilton, begun in The Morning River (1996), carrying him from untested student of philosophy and priggish young gentleman of society to maturation and manhood on the virgin frontier of the American West in the 1820s. The story resumes with Richard indentured to rough mountain man Travis Hartman and obliged to work on a keelboat bound for the Yellowstone, where the boat's owner, Dave Green, hopes to establish an illegal trading post. Travis is committed to making a man of the boyish Richard, who has already proved his mettle by killing a Pawnee warrior and rescuing the beautiful Heals Like a Willow, a Shoshone mystic who's smitten by the handsome but elitist Bostonian. For the slow first half of this sequel, Richard broods over the loss of his honor owing to happenstances revealed in The Morning River (they included robbery and murder)--matters that, like the frontier around him, are at odds with his sophomoric philosophical understanding of civilization's established values. Finally, though, the plot begins to move forward with a speed that makes the ponderous first 200 pages worth the journey. Richard is bloodied and badly wounded in a pitched battle, and he finds his devotion to the memory of his Boston love, Laura Templeton, competing with his newfound affection for the Shoshone girl. Ultimately, though, Richard is saved by true love--both in Boston and in the West--and reconciles his philosophical studies with frontier and human actualities. The stage is well set for volume three. All the sterotypical Indians talk like Oxford dons, and all the rustic whites speak in dialectical frontier gibberish; but, still, Gear presents the early American West with a rare, salty accuracy of detail. The action scenes are exciting, the romance ones only marginally sentimental. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 427 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312863306
• ISBN-13: 978-0312863302
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,208,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

W. Michael Gear has co-written 23 international bestsellers which have been translated into 21 languages. His novel People of the Raven won the Golden Spur Award in 2005. Michael's solo novel Morning River was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1998. In addition to writing both fiction and non-fiction, the Gear operates an anthropological research company called Wind River Archaeological Consultants, and raises buffalo on his ranch in northern Wyoming.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coyote Summer, October 28, 2003

By 

Steven Goldberg (Costa Mesa, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coyote Summer (Mass Market Paperback)

The best book I've read all year, and i am an avid reader..The quality of the writing and research,along with the unforgettable characters makes this book impossible to put down..I enjoyed the prequel The Morning River, but this was even better..I think Richard, and Willow still have another story to tell....PLEASE//

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entrapping and enthralling sequel, February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Coyote Summer (Hardcover)

W.Michael Gear has written a wonderful series of Morning River and Coyote Summer. I read River and couldn't wait for the sequel. Gear's character development is is a model for study. Humor abounds as well as deep concern for Richard and Willow which makes for excellent plot development All in all it is a fun, exciting, and well paced story of early west in full color and surround sound. Don't miss it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eagerly anticipated. I wasn't disappointed, June 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Coyote Summer (Hardcover)

As always, I love the historical content of Gear's books. This series had exceptional dialogue and really engaging characters. After reading "Morning Mist", I couldn't wait to get this sequel. I really enjoyed it, although the ending was a bit "Cinderella".