Death of an Eagle [Paperback]

Kirby Jonas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Death of an Eagle is the heart-touching account of a Basque sheepherder by the name of Jose Olano taught to be a man and a survivor in the wilderness by the rugged, sometimes roguish mountain man, Robert "Gray Eagle" McAllister. Jose will meet Indians, wild mustangs, grizzly bears, bad men, good men, law men, and the love of his life as he journeys on his path to becoming a man to reckon with. One day he will have to face his greatest foe--his greatest friend.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Death of an Eagle establishes Kirby Jonas as one of America's most promising western writers. He writes with the passion of a young Jack London. For anyone who likes westerns, Jonas is must reading." -- Lee Nelson, author of The Storm Testament series

"Death of an Eagle is a tour-de-force of poetic description, sharp period dialogue, and the kind of action that whitens one's knuckles. Kirby Jonas is one of the best new finds in an American genre that continues to grow and deepen." -- Loren Estleman, author of Jitterbug

"I concur with the statement that Kirby Jonas is the New Louis L'Amour. Death of an Eagle takes place not far from the writer's home in Pocatello, Idaho. Whether the author describes a mountain, valley, stream, hot springs pool or a railroad bed, he has been there, and it exists.

Death of an Eagle is a well written story, with many cliffhangers leading the reader into the next chapter.

Kirby Jonas is a great writer, and I recommend you get on his reading list." -- Western Digest

About the Author

Kirby Frank Jonas was born in 1965 in Bozeman, Montana. He lived in a place called Bear Canyon, where sagebrush gave way to spruce and fir, and the wild country was forever ingrained in him. It was there he gained his love of the Old West, listening to his daddy tell stories and sing western ballads, and watching television Westerns such as Gunsmoke, The Virginian, and the Big Valley.

Jonas next lived on a remote farm in the middle of Civil War battlefield country near Broad Run, Virginia. That was followed by a move to Shelley,d IDaho, where he completed all of his school years, wrote his first book in the sixth grade and his second as a senior in high school. He has since written five published novels and two which are forthcoming, one which was co-authored by his older brother, Jamie.

Besides writing novels, Jonas also paints wildlife and the West. He has done all of his cover art and hundreds of other pieces. He is a songwriter and guitar player and singer of old Western ballads and trail songs. Jonas enjoys the joking title given to him by his friends,"The Renaissance Cowboy."

After living in Arizona to research his first two published books, and traveling through nine countries in Europe, to get his glimpse of the world, Jonas settled permanently in Pocatello, Idaho. He has made a living fighting forest fires for the Bureau of Land Management in five western states, worked for the Idaho Fish and Game Department, been a security guard and a guard for Wells Fargo in Phoenix, Arizona. He was employed as an officer for the Pocatello city police and currently works as a city firefighter. He and his wife, Debbie, have four children, Cheyenne Kaycee, Jacob Talon, Clay Logan, and Matthew Morgan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Howling Wolf Publishing; 1st edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891423010
• ISBN-13: 978-1891423017
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There should be a six star rating!, January 9, 2000

By 

James Drury - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death of an Eagle (Paperback)

As the book that first introduced me to Kirby Jonas, Death of an Eagle may always be my favorite. It had such a new, fresh quality to it that I was intrigued and hooked from the first page.

I portrayed television's The Virginian for many years, and in that portrayal I got to recognize varying degrees of quality in writing and in the way things were portrayed. I have to tell everyone who has a chance to read any of Kirby Jonas's books that you are making a grave error if you let this chance go by. I am so impressed with this author. I was so impressed with his books, in fact, that I suggested putting them on audio tape, and Kirby and I have since undertaken that endeavor with a major book on tape company in Washington State. I have read, to date, Death of an Eagle and The Dansing Star onto tape and plan to do them all.

I have become biased about Kirby's books, of course, because we have become friends. But I can't imagine he could write a bad book, and I would stake my reputation on that. What a tremendous boon this man is to the Western fiction field.

Death of an Eagle will draw you in to the world of Jose Olano and Robert McAllister with such force that you won't want to let go of them. You'll feel goosebumps as you read it, and you will smell the smells, feel the feelings, even taste what they taste. Kirby Jonas is real, and he is authentic, and as far as I can see he is the best western novel writer there is. I have read Zane Grey books on tape before, and I never once lost control of my reading to the point that I had to stop. SUch is not the case with Kirby. His books drew me in so deeply emotionally that I had to stop and have a cigarette several times and think about what I was involved in. What a power this young man has with his audience. DO NOT MISS HIM.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kirby Jonas is definitely the best!, January 20, 2000

By 

Earl Schlindock (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death of an Eagle (Paperback)

It was great to see James Drury's name again. There are still some of us fans left, I guess. He's definitely teling the truth too. I read Death of an Eagle, and it is great from the first page on. How can anyone write such a good story? There is a bear attack from a huge grizzly bear right away, and the main character fights that bear heroically. It was so much like I was fighting it. You can't believe the depth of these characters and how close you get to them. You don't want to let them go. Bring back more of these people, Kirby Jonas! Bless you for writing a book I can read to my eight-year-old or loan to my mom. We've needed a good clean western writer since Louis L'Amour died, and now I've found one better!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the heart of the West............, March 10, 2000

By 

Ronald Ciancutti (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death of an Eagle (Paperback)

A sculptor taps away at a rock and reveals the body he finds beneath the stone. A painter looks at a blank canvas and sees images coming to life at the discretionary wave of his hand. It is the essence of the artist that we are left to interpret as we often see little of the toil that brought the piece to life. However, sometimes, we look upon an artistic rendering and know the artist suffered, or enjoyed, or was fulfilled by the work; and we get to see the secret innermost reaches of his soul. It speaks to us because it was so very real and important to him. And in that moment when that common thread is found, we smile and say, "I understand what he meant." Now the inverse of that would be the artist that looked at his audience and said, "I understand what they want." This book, like all those of Jonas, gives the lover of the West just that. This man ushers his readers into a time machine and brings the west alive in a way that no writer, in my experience, previously has done. Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour will always be the standards to which this writer is compared as people will find it hard to step out of the genre. But I challenge the reader to compare Jonas' work to the pieces completed by Hemingway at this stage of his career, even Kipling, or Yeats. There is a poetry and fluidity to this young man's style that happens to be portrayed in the west but should be respected on any level of writing quality. You see, PASSION, in all things, is what separates those from the common soldiers that allow the momentum of mediocrity to rule their lives. Jonas speaks volumes of heart and soul in "Eagle" because the voice he has found rings true and with a commitment to accuracy. Much like a proud man would protect his family heritage, Jonas takes the responsibility of "story teller" to the highest degree. "Death of an Eagle" is a must read. It's portrayals of accuracy, kinship, loyalty and heart are merely the superficial assets of the "piece". Lying below the sculptor's rendering, surrounded by stone, beats a heart, available to all and proudly offered by this great author.