The Deliverance (Barnaby Skye Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Barnaby Skye Novels | Publication Date: December 28, 2004

In this newest of Richard Wheeler's Barnaby Skye chronicles, the earthy deserter from the Royal Navy, now a trapper, guide, and magnet for adventure, collects his Crow Indian wife Many Quills Woman (or "Victoria" as he calls her) and drifts south to Mexican territory

At Bent's Fort on the Mexican frontier, Skye agrees to help Standing
Alone, a mysterious Cheyenne woman, locate her two children who were
kidnapped by Ute Indians several years before and sold into bondage in
Mexico.

This impossible, dangerous, and foolhardy mission takes the three to Santa Fe and Taos and into a strange association with an eccentric Texas adventurer, Colonel Childress, who agrees to help them for reasons no one can guess.

Deliverance is the 13th in a series of early American West frontier
novels featuring Barnaby Skye, the most beloved and enduring character in
modern Western fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Barnaby Skye and Victoria, the Indian woman with whom he shares his life, have decided to hole up for a time at Bent's Fort near the Mexican border. Skye earns his living supplying buffalo meat to the settlement's residents. But peace and quiet don't keep Skye company for long. At the urging of Victoria, he takes up the cause of Stands Alone, a Cheyenne woman whose two children were stolen by the slave-trading Utes. On the way to Ute territory, Skye and the two women form an uneasy alliance with Texas adventurer Colonel Childress, who is protected from the Utes by his small spider monkey, which the Indians believe is strong medicine best left alone. When Skye is taken prisoner, the question is whether Childress will find it in his enigmatic heart to rescue him so their mission can be completed. Wheeler's Skye is a much more well rounded character than one usually finds in western literature. He is intelligent, erudite, compassionate, and self-aware. The thirteenth entry in the series is one of the most satisfying. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Skye is one of the most memorable figures in Western fiction since Max
Brand's Destry."
--- Tulsa World

"Wheeler's westerns just keep getting better and better."
--- Publishers Weekly

"Well-loved western writer Wheeler takes a big grip on afflictions of
the heart in each outing..."
--- Kirkus Reviews on Downriver

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081256684X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812566840
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,229,322 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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Cheyenne children were abducted, February 26, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: The Deliverance (Barnaby Skye Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Skye and his wife, Victoria, take on a quest to find two kidnapped children who were sold into slavery in what is now the state of New Mexico. This story is full of great description and characterization, including capturing Standing Alone's need to find her children, the many faces of a fat man called Childress, and the pits of despair the human soul sinks to when it is enslaved. The Deliverance was a well written read and quite enjoyable.

1.0 out of 5 stars Feedback, January 11, 2012

By 

micheline conn - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Deliverance (Barnaby Skye Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

I ordered a hard back for $4.00 plus $3.99 shipping.
Why did you send me a pocket book?
Micheline Conn

5.0 out of 5 stars The Deliverance by Richard Wheeler, February 23, 2011

By 

Woodstock - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Deliverance (Barnaby Skye Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Richard Wheeler again gives us a delightful western in the Barnaby Skye Novels! I enjoyed this book just as much as the others in this series. Mr Wheeler simply cannot crank these stories out fast enough for me!