Dodging Red Cloud [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 13, 1988

It's September 1868, with winter fast approaching. Three travelers on the Bozeman Trail need routes that avoid the great Northern prairies-and the infamous Sioux warrior Red Cloud.

The Bozeman Trail is littered with graves, but that doesn't stop Hannah Holt, her pockets laden with riches from Virginia City; a horse trader named Colonel Wiley Smart; and twelve-year-old Linc Larrimer, only recently made an orphan by Sioux arrows. As this odd trio heads toward the Bridger cutoff-and safety-they face more obstacles than an encounter with the great warrior. They can only get to where they're going by using each other's resources--and use each other they do.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The third book in a new series of Evans novels of the West. Three single-minded characters are bound together by circumstances resulting from the withdrawal of the U.S. Army from Sioux territory in Montana in 1868. Trader Wiley Smart (Slippery Tongue) aims to enrich himself; Hannah Holt heads for wealth in Saratoga Springs, New York; and 12-year-old Linc seeks vengeance on Red Cloud for his parents' murder. Their journey is halted by the Crow, who hold them in their village, where Hannah and Linc learn valuable lessons. Hannah is a bit too incredible to accept, but Linc is brave and resourceful. Not one of Wheeler's best, but entertaining. Sister Avila, Acad. of the Holy Angels, Minneapolis
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Richard S. Wheeler is the recipient of four Spur Awards and the Owen Wister Award. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (December 13, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345356659
• ISBN-13: 978-0345356659
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,634,370 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

4.0 out of 5 stars Fortune hunters learn from Indians, February 12, 2000

By 

William H. Van Horn "whvanhorn" (Burlingame, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dodging Red Cloud (Audio Cassette)

Intriguing tale of travelers on the Bozeman trail in 1869 who are thrown by their own needs to reach white settlements. Hannah headed back East to spend the gentile life her wit has made in real estate in Virginia City, Mt, Linc, 12-yr old whose parents were killed by the Souix, ane Wiley Smart, a "used horse" salesman, are taken under the wing of the less-than-friendly Absarkees. The gradual transformation of Linc and Hannah under the protection of the Indians and the blaggardy of Wiley make for an exciting and informative tale.