Vengeance!

Wagons West Empire #2

by Dana Fuller Ross

They are bold men and women who chase their dream from the cities of the East to the wild vastness of the West. Daring and determined, they seek their fortune in a rough-and-tumble new land, forging their destiny along with that of the great American continent.
 
A raw young nation needs foreign commerce to survive, so Jefferson Holt stakes the future of his company on blazing trade routes to the Pacific. He sends his cousin Ned to an isolated land of great riches, while he himself journeys to Russian Alaska. Meanwhile, Clay Holt continues his undercover efforts to unmask the powerful Washington politician who is plotting against his own country. But each of the Holts soon finds himself in deadly Jeff in the snows of Alaska, Ned on the rough Pacific seas, and Clay in a wilderness rent by nature’s fury. To fulfill their destiny—and to build their nation’s future—the Holts must battle for their lives, and their freedom.

Genres: Historical Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Dana Fuller Ross is a pseudonym used by Noel B. Gerson and James M. Reasoner.

Noel Gearson specializes in historical military novels, westerns, and mysteries. He also writes under the pseudonyms, "Dana Fuller Ross.", Anne Marie Burgess; Michael Burgess; Nicholas Gorham; Paul Lewis; Leon Phillips; Donald Clayton Porter; Philip Vail; and Carter A. Vaughan. He has written more than 325 novels.

James Reasoner (pictured) is an American writer. He is the author of more than 150 books and many short stories in a career spanning more than thirty years. Reasoner has used at least nineteen pseudonyms, in addition to his own name: Jim Austin; Peter Danielson; Terrance Duncan; Tom Early; Wesley Ellis; Tabor Evans; Jake Foster; William Grant; Matthew Hart; Livia James; Mike Jameson; Justin Ladd; Jake Logan; Hank Mitchum; Lee Morgan; J.L. Reasoner (with his wife); Dana Fuller Ross; Adam Rutledge; and Jon Sharpe. Since most of Reasoner's books were written as part of various existing Western fiction series, many of his pseudonyms were publishing "house" names that may have been used by other authors who contributed to those series

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Reasoner (writing here as Dana Fuller Ross) continues the story of Clay and Jeff Holt in the era of president James Madison as well as the adventures of several of their friends and relatives as they seek their destinies in the young country. While billed as the second book in the “Empire” trilogy, this is really the 5th novel of these two Holt brothers, following the events described in the first three books called the “Frontier” trilogy. Interested readers should also understand that all 6 novels take place prior to the lengthy “Wagon’s West” series that features Jeff Holt’s son, Whip Holt and the Oregon Trail adventures.

There are several subplots in this book but the main one involves the historically accurate first steamboat trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1811 onboard the “New Orleans” captained by inventor Nicholas Roosevelt (a great grand uncle to Teddy Roosevelt). This was also the time of the “New Madrid Earthquakes” along the Mississippi river, the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history. Against this intriguing background, Clay Holt tries to identify and stop the villain in a massive plot to undermine the results of the Louisiana Purchase and create a new French Empire. Other subplots involve a young Sioux warrior’s attempts to attend an eastern US university, a trade voyage to the Hawaiian Islands including negotiations with King Kamehameha, and another trade mission to Alaska headed up by Jeff Holt to work a deal with the Russians.

I enjoy these books generally although they are pretty light reading. I also get a little tired of what I call soap opera relationships, meaning just when a perfect love story is complete, some petty jealousy interferes and spirals out of control. This always seems contrived when I read it in fiction but then again, I see it happen in real life too.

One more of these to go and then it will be on to the Holt’s Legacy series that occurs in the 1880s and onwards.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! A worthy successor to the first book in the series, "Honor"...and one great thing about it is that it doesn't tie up all the plot threads with a great big bow. It leaves them all in suspenseful taters for the next book to presumably solve.

[BakedNBacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great sequel and didn't feel like the author was dragging the series. I don't have specific examples but the book was indeed an epic journey.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this book while on an Asian cruise and finished it after I returned home. It was a pretty good read.

[Debbie West · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, unlike all the others in Wagons West series and trilogies, kept me dizzy. Barely staying with one group for long, the author..whoever wrote as Dana Fuller Ross this time..moved back and forth between Jeff & Melissa Holt on a ship heading toward Alaska, Ned Holt & girlfriend India on a ship bound for Hawaii, and Clay Holt with Shining Moon & Matthew on a steamboat heading south on the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers. But the plots in each were good, though none were finished. I'll have to read the last one in this trilogy to find the ending. Clay & Markham do discover the identity of the senator they're seeking. The ending definitely makes me impatient to read the last book!

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great surprise ending. Written in the true wagons west saga leaving me wanting to read more.