Wind on the River [Hardcover]

Richard Barre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2004

Third in Richard Barre's series of redemptive, mysterious Christmas novels from Capra Press, including Bethany (2003), The Star (2002). Dakota Territory, 1879: Played-out gunman Jubal Pyne, hours from the posse that would hang him and the blizzard that would freeze and bury him, crosses the Cheyenne river into Laney Van Rensslaer’s high-plains farm. From then on nothing is the same not for Jubal, not for Laney and her 5-year-old daughter, not for the injured and comatose husband Laney tries to will back to life.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 60 pages
• Publisher: Capra Pr; 1 edition (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592660479
• ISBN-13: 978-1592660476
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,234,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful series just gets better, November 29, 2004

By 

Rae "rae_2756" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wind on the River (Hardcover)

This is the third in a series of short stories that Richard Barre has written to celebrate the holiday season. There's a common theme of hope against all odds, and the redemption of one person's soul.

In Wind on the River, the protagonist is a woman of the late nineteenth century - she's a pioneer in the midwest, struggling to keep her family together, when a stranger appears. What happens next is beautiful, joyous, sad, haunting, and celebratory.

There's not a single wasted word in this story - or in the series if it comes to that - it's just beautifully written, and a rewarding read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story you won't soon forget, May 11, 2005

By 

Pat Browning "Author of ABSINTHEOF MALICE" (Yukon, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wind on the River (Hardcover)

This story of hard choices is etched on the landscape of a

Dakota Territory winter.

Laney is a pioneer wife committed to her invalid husband,

her young daughter, and the son buried in a small grave up

the knoll. Jubal is a lone rider, pursued by Pinkertons,

an outlaw perhaps, a man in search of something worth

dying for.

Their chance meeting - if you believe in chance - can

never be more than a moment in time, but Barre illuminates

the best and worst of human experience by putting his

characters, however briefly, into this crucible.

Laney's description of the stranger who rides up while

she's digging potatoes: "Twin Peacemakers in an oiled

double holster, the butter-colored handle of something

smaller protruding from his belt. Shearling coat with the

collar up, gray wool trousers over the dusted boots and

unroweled spurs. Tooled saddlebags, brass on the buttplate

of his rifle. No farmer, yet something about him that kept

my fear at bay."

That's the kind of character Barre writes so well. As a

die-hard fan of his private eye Wil Hardesty, I see Jubal

as an older, shrewder Wil, weary and disappointed but

always gallant. In the phrase of the day, it's who he is.

WIND ON THE RIVER reminds me of Hamlin Garland's classic

prairie stories "Under the Lion's Paw" and "Turkey Red."

It's 43 pages long, third in Barre's published Christmas

stories, the first two being THE STAR and BETHANY.

Worth buying, worth keeping.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grab this tight., November 18, 2004

By 

John Bowes (Oxford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wind on the River (Hardcover)

The author has read Shane and can write a lean and hungry story. One of a series of stories set at Christmas time. If you love good writing, get this story.