The Final Tally [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 25, 1990

WHAT GUILTY SECRETS LAY COVERED IN BLOOD AND BULLETS?

This was no ordinary cattle drive through Sheriff Santiago Toole's Miles City in the Montana Territory. Three cowboys in the outfit had already stopped bullets, and the boss man Hermes Bragg was dying of consumption. But his two hard-bitten, closemouthed kids would keep pressing on, no matter what.

Since Toole was the doctor, his first responsibility was to the wounded. But he was a lawman too, and the Bragg outfit wasn't lamming out before he had some answers. Trouble was, young Athena Bragg didn't intend to hang around, and she'd kill anyone who tried to persuade her. That's why no one had dared interfere with the Braggs - until now . . .

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

WHAT GUILTY SECRETS LAY COVERED IN BLOOD AND BULLETS?

This was no ordinary cattle drive through Sheriff Santiago Toole's Miles City in the Montana Territory. Three cowboys in the outfit had already stopped bullets, and the boss man Hermes Bragg was dying of consumption. But his two hard-bitten, closemouthed kids would keep pressing on, no matter what.

Since Toole was the doctor, his first responsibility was to the wounded. But he was a lawman too, and the Bragg outfit wasn't lamming out before he had some answers. Trouble was, young Athena Bragg didn't intend to hang around, and she'd kill anyone who tried to persuade her. That's why no one had dared interfere with the Braggs - until now . . .

About the Author

Richard S. Wheeler is the author of more than thirty novels, most of them historicals that deal with the American West. He has won two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. He lives in Livingston, Montana, in the heart of the country he writes about.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (December 25, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449147096
• ISBN-13: 978-0449147092
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,791,751 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.