Dark Passage: A Barnaby Skye Novel [Large Print] [Library Binding]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

It is 1831 and Barnaby Skye, the deserter from the British Royal Navy and now a seasoned trapper in the Rocky Mountains, accompanies his Crow wife, Mary Quill Woman, whom he calls Victoria, to her village on the Yellowstone. When Victoria is abducted by the Bloods, the deadliest band of Blackfeet, Skye trails her across the border into Canada. But in an ironic twist, Skye himself is taken prisoner by the Bloods, and it is Victoria who now must escape her captors to free the man she truly loves. Reviewed in Publisher's Weekly.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This deftly crafted western is the 10th in Spur Award-winning Wheeler's Skye's West series, the adventures of fledgling mountainman Barnaby Skye (last seen in 1997's Rendezvous, which, like this novel, is a prequel to the earlier books). It is now 1830, four years after Skye deserted from the Royal Navy and headed into the wilderness, a hunted fugitive. Having endured harsh weather and severe hunger, Skye is now a respected trapper and a skilled camp tender for an American fur company. In this exciting installment, his most important challenge, however, is his marriage to Many Quill Woman, or Victoria, as he calls her. To his dismay, when he goes to live with Victoria's tribe, Skye finds that he has no honor or prestige among the Crow, and he finally loses his wife to the arrogant attentions of fabled mountainman Jim Beckwourth, who is also a mighty Crow subchief. Disgraced and banished, Skye wanders aimlessly through the mountains and plains until he is captured by the Bloods, a fierce Blackfeet clan, and faces torture and the promise of slow death. But a grueling chain of events reunites Skye and Victoria in new perils that will see them live or perish together.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Richard Wheeler's latest Barnaby Skye saga is more than just an entertaining frontier adventure. It is a love story told in terms as ruggedly beautiful as the mountain country in which it is set. Skye, a former British sailor who long ago jumped ship in Vancouver, enjoys a fine reputation as a Rocky Mountain trapper and trader. Now he almost loses his restless and homesick Crow wife, Victoria, known to her people as "Mary Quill woman," when he agrees to visit her village. Once there, Victoria goes off with the notorious African American Crow war chief James Pierson Beckwourth on a raid against the feared Blackfeet. When she is taken by the Bloods, a murderous Blackfoot band, Skye follows them to Canada where he could be hung for desertion. A Western Writers of America Golden Spur winner, Wheeler has a sharp eye for detail and writes prose worth savoring. Budd Arthur --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Library Binding: 344 pages
• Publisher: Center Point Pub (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585472387
• ISBN-13: 978-1585472383
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,511,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hornblower of the Old West, March 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Passage: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Skye's West) (Hardcover)

Richard Wheeler, who has created some of the most memorable characters in all the literature of the American West, has outdone himself--and everybody else--with Barnaby Skye, Rocky Mountain trapper, guide and adventurer and late of His Majesty's Royal Navy. In Skye, Wheeler has outdone Frederick Manfred and Vardis Fisher and giving us a mountain man to remember. There are a dozen novels in the Skye series--beginning with SUN RIVER in 1989--so the reader who has yet to discover this Horatio Hornblower of the early West has an enviable treat in store. And, thankfully, DARK PASSAGE is not the last in the series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Dark Passage" and Richard S. Wheeler are great, May 5, 2005

By 

Kevin Ladd "Kevin Ladd" (Hardin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Passage (Barnaby Skye Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Several months ago I purchased this book and introduced myself to the excellent writing style of Richard S. Wheeler, a critically acclaimed Western writer who certainly deserves a wider following. Barnaby Skye is one of the most compelling figures in modern Western writing and a fair depiction of the legendary Mountain Men of the early Nineteenth Century. Their kind has long since vanished from the earth, but Wheeler takes you right into their lifestyle and makes his readers feel we are along for the adventure. His depiction of legendary Mountain Man Jim Beckwourth rings true. Skye's Crow wife, Victoria, is a wonderful character -- and the plot is fast-paced and exciting. This book, like almost any book by Wheeler, is hard to put down once underway.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic adventure, December 27, 2001

By 

kregg P.J. Jorgenson (Burien, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Passage (Barnaby Skye Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Once again Richard Wheeler thrusts us into the turbulant world of Mountain man, Barnaby Skye and his two Indian wives, Victoria and Mary only this time the story takes a more familiar twist. All's not well in the Skye household and change for the worse and better is afoot.
Victoria has had enough and leaves the morose Skye and like the other books in this series that's only the beginning of an epic adventure.
There's enough action and adventure for any man while offering something substantial for the ladies as well. This book's about salvaging their lives and expectations and finding some scarred redemption in the hard fought process.
Wheeler tells a good story. You won't be disappointed.