The Canyon of Bones

Skye's West #15

by Richard S. Wheeler

With the trapping trade on the decline, mountain man Barnaby Skye takes work as a guide, leading a wealthy Englishman, Graves Duplessis Mercer and two companions on an exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri River valleys.
Mercer is a peculiar employer. He has come to the American wilderness seeking weird, morbid, thrilling, preferably slightly salacious, material to write up for British tabloids. He has little interest in such amazing natural phenomena as the geysers of the Yellowstone country but is adept in ferreting out stories of cannibalism and similar atrocities.

To the Briton's disappointment, Skye has none of these to offer but does agree to take him to a Missouri River valley where gigantic bones of ancient monsters are thrust out of canyon walls. Skye's Crow Indian wife, Victoria, warns that the bones are sacred among certain tribes, but Mercer insists of taking a "trophy" - a tooth from a tyrannosaurus-like fossil. This act nearly costs the lives of Mercer's party and its guide, Barnaby Skye.

Wheeler's Barnaby Skye, a deserter from the Royal Navy who becomes a legendary mountain man, has been called "the Horatio Hornblower of the Rocky Mountains."

Genres: Westerns

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

There are other authors with this name. One writes Marine Corps history. Another, Civil War history. Another writes in the political sciences.

Richard S. (Shaw) Wheeler was born in Milwaukee in 1935 and grew up in nearby Wauwatosa.

Reviews

[Ramona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read a Western in many, many years. I do not enjoy the violence which is usually the main fare of today's western stories, that are not historical fiction, per se. I picked this up because of the interesting paperback book cover. As a sci-fi and historical fiction reader, the dinosaur skeleton coming out of a rock ledge, a fringe-covered jacket on a handsome mountain man, and another good looking gentleman, in fancy city-wear, with a gun on his hip, looking at the skeleton intrigued me. I wasn't sure where the story was going to go. The series is new to me, and it was not too bad. The story had all the ingredients for a lively western, with a twist. The Native Americans were well represented, along with the real way they were treated by most white men. of that time period. Being from a Native American background, several generations back, but no ties to any tribe, I have always detested the treatment of the true "Americans" of North America. Anyone who enjoys a good western will enjoy this series.

[Bob Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the character Mister Skye and the story line and the places and events and the Indians.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of interesting information into the life of the indians in the 1800's.