Virgin River: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Skye's West) [Hardcover]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Skye's West | Publication Date: March 4, 2008

This is the sixteenth novel in Richard S. Wheeler’s long-running series about Barnaby Skye, the British seaman who carves out an amazing life for himself in the North American Wilderness, along with his wives and his ugly, cantankerous horse, Jawbone. 

 

In Virgin River, the famed mountain man and his two wives, Victoria of the Crows and Mary of the Shoshones, take a party of tubercular young people to the southwestern desert where they hope to be healed. Their destination is the Virgin River, where the mild, dry climate offers a cure. This time, Skye and his wives must cope with rival guides and cross Utah at the time of heightened tensions between the federal government and the Latter-Day Saints.

 

Skye soon discovers that other wagon companies on the trail fear the sick and blame them for every ill that overtakes their own companies. Taking a party of sick people along the California trail requires every bit of skill and courage that Skye and his wives can muster. And hovering over the trip is the looming catastrophe of war.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Barnaby Skye returns for his 16th stirring western (after The Canyon of Bones) set primarily in pre–Civil War southern Utah. Skye, exiled from England, views himself as an outcast, an empty-purse man of the wilderness, who makes his living guiding Yanks in their endless westering. He has two Native American wives, Mary, a Shoshone, and Victoria, an Absaroka Crow. Mary's recently given birth to his son Dirk (whose Indian name is North Star) and Skye's hungry for a job to support them. He agrees to guide Hiram Peacock's New Bedford Infirmary Company wagon train—which includes 10 young seriously ill consumptives in hope of a cure—to a desert place. With wives and son in tow, Skye guides Peacock's charges, overcoming obstacles from other immigrant trains who fear the plague party as they follow the California Trail and pass through unknown territory. Unfortunately, they must deal with Paiute Indians and militias drawn from angry Mormon settlements in conflict with the government over polygamy. Wheeler's lucid prose and excellent eye for detail make history come alive once again. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

The sixteenth entry in this consistently popular series finds the English-seaman-turned-mountain-man Barnaby Skye shepherding a group of tubercular youngsters to the Virgin River, where the dry climate is thought to offer a respite for their condition. Accompanying Skye are his two Crow Indian wives and a particularly difficult horse that provides comic relief. Among the hardships the group endures are the weather, hostile Indians, and equally hostile travelers who fear catching TB. Skye and his little band also find themselves in the crosshairs between Mormon militia and U.S. government troops looking to drive the Latter-day Saints from their land. Wheeler states in a foreword that, while his book is fiction, it mirrors actual conditions in 1857 Utah. Fans of the series will find Skye older, more pragmatic, and less prone to violence, though he remains a formidable opponent to those who cross him. The period detail is wonderful, the primary players memorable, and even the minor characters are nicely fleshed out. Entertaining fare for both strict western fans and historical-fiction readers. --Wes Lukowsky

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076530709X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765307095
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,613,892 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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Author handles touchy subjects well, December 5, 2009

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

This review is from: Virgin River: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Barnaby Skye Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Mister Skye and his wives have picked up a job guiding a small party of folks sick with TB and take them toward the southwest. Unfortunately, paranoia about sickness and the less than welcoming people in Utah make the trip to the Virgin river a tough one.

As usual, Mr. Wheeler has put together a well written book that expertly describes the trials and tribulations of life in the West before "civilization" takes over the continent.