Dark Passage

This deftly crafted western is the 10th in Spur Award-winning Wheeler's Skye's West series, the adventures of fledgling mountainman Barnaby Skye (last seen in 1997's Rendezvous, which, like this novel, is a prequel to the earlier books). It is now 1830, four years after Skye deserted from the Royal Navy and headed into the wilderness, a hunted fugitive. Having endured harsh weather and severe hunger, Skye is now a respected trapper and a skilled camp tender for an American fur company. In this exciting installment, his most important challenge, however, is his marriage to Many Quill Woman, or Victoria, as he calls her. To his dismay, when he goes to live with Victoria's tribe, Skye finds that he has no honor or prestige among the Crow, and he finally loses his wife to the arrogant attentions of fabled mountainman Jim Beckwourth, who is also a mighty Crow subchief. Disgraced and banished, Skye wanders aimlessly through the mountains and plains until he is captured by the Bloods, a fierce Blackfeet clan, and faces torture and the promise of slow death. But a grueling chain of events reunites Skye and Victoria in new perils that will see them live or perish together. (Nov.)