The Columbia River

Rivers West #14

by Jory Sherman

Rivers West

Over one million books were sold in paperback!

Rivers West is one of the most exciting frontier series of our time… tales of mountain men and intrepid women, pioneer families and Native American warriors. Here is the story of North America in all its awesome splendor.

The Columbia River

Haunting, majestic, powerful, the Columbia River flowed down from the rugged Rockies, through the deep, forbidden forests, and across the open plain. Along its banks, bold, strong men of ambition and enterprise sought their fortune. It was a time and a place where the fur trade could make you wealthy… or get you killed. The race to riches along the Columbia rapids was cutthroat, and for every trader and trapper, there was a hired gun or assassin. Into this land of adventure and treachery came Jared Flynn, a man running from his tragic past; Swan, the slave girl Jared purchased from the Chinooks; and Malcolm Flynn, content to live among the Sioux as he journeyed west… to track down and kill his brother, Jared. Their fates would converge along the Columbia—a river whose course pointed to the heart of a growing American empire.

Genres: Westerns

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

Jory Sherman was born in Minnesota and grew up in West Texas, Louisiana, and Colorado. He was a magazine editor for a time and had some of his work published, including some poetry, short stories and articles. Sherman had a friend who owned a publishing company and asked him to write a novel for the company. From that offer came five more novels, all written in one year. He wrote the supernatural mystery series, "Chill," which was somewhat revolutionary for the times, but which earned him an eight book contract. He then came up with the idea for "Rivers West," a series which had each book written by a different western author. Then came the "Baron Saga," the first of which was "Grass Kingdom" which earned Sherman a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in Letters. Sherman has also won the Spur Award for his contribution to Western Literature.

Reviews

[Alton Motobu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two separate story lines: alternating chapters centered around conflict between brothers Jared and Malcolm Flynn during fur trapping expedition to Pacific Northwest in 1811. Both are running away from an undisclosed horrific family problem in Ohio in which their father, mother and sister were killed. Lots of action involving Indians, wild animals, renegades and unexplained murderous partner. In the end Jared kills Malcolm in knife fight and explains that their father was raping their sister who hung herself, then their mother died of a broken heart. Sound interesting, but very weakly written.

[Darel Krieger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, good action & plotline, I enjoyed it. The one downer was that one of the main plotlines was that brother was going to kill brother the next time they saw each other, this was an ongoing theme throughout the book. Then when they finally had their big meeting and fight it was over in a couple of paragraphs, really? I will probably read more books in this series and hope that the plotlines are carried out to their fullest extent.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it too confusing to follow; couldn't even figure out who the protagonist was.