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Skye's West #16
Virgin River
This is the sixteenth novel in Richard S. Wheeler's long-running series about Barnaby Skye, the British seaman who carves out an amazing life for himself in the North American Wilderness, along with his wives and his ugly, cantankerous horse, Jawbone.
In Virgin River, the famed mountain man and his two wives, Victoria of the Crows and Mary of the Shoshones, take a party of tubercular young people to the southwestern desert where they hope to be healed. Their destination is the Virgin River, where the mild, dry climate offers a cure. This time, Skye and his wives must cope with rival guides and cross Utah at the time of heightened tensions between the federal government and the Latter-Day Saints.
Skye soon discovers that other wagon companies on the trail fear the sick and blame them for every ill that overtakes their own companies. Taking a party of sick people along the California trail requires every bit of skill and courage that Skye and his wives can muster. And hovering over the trip is the looming catastrophe of war.
In Virgin River, the famed mountain man and his two wives, Victoria of the Crows and Mary of the Shoshones, take a party of tubercular young people to the southwestern desert where they hope to be healed. Their destination is the Virgin River, where the mild, dry climate offers a cure. This time, Skye and his wives must cope with rival guides and cross Utah at the time of heightened tensions between the federal government and the Latter-Day Saints.
Skye soon discovers that other wagon companies on the trail fear the sick and blame them for every ill that overtakes their own companies. Taking a party of sick people along the California trail requires every bit of skill and courage that Skye and his wives can muster. And hovering over the trip is the looming catastrophe of war.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 4, 2008
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61 people want to read
About the author
Richard S. Wheeler
124 books66 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 12, 2023
I don’t read many westerns, but Richard S. Wheeler is atypical when he writes that format. These are thoughtful books where complex issues air and you get a look at problems from a variety of sides.
Barnaby Skye escaped the British Navy which had forced him into servitude as a teenager in London. For years, he lived as a trapper and mountain man in the then-sparsely populated American west. But economies change, and kye turned from trapping to guiding restless Americans across the hostile and often intemperate West.
As this book opens, one of his two Indian wives has borne him a son. He calls the boy Dirk, and his mother gives him the Indian name for North Star. Certain that his meager money supply won’t be enough to raise the child, Skye takes on additional and more lucrative guide work. In this book, he is guide to 10 children from New England, all of whom suffer from various stages of Tuberculosis. His travels take him through Utah in 1857. Utah in 1857 is no place to be if you can help it. Brigham Young and the members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ have taken a stand against the feckless James Buchanan. Some say Buchanan approved of the war between the Latter-Day Saints and the federal government as a distraction from the far deeper problems among the southern states. Feeling cornered and angry, Brigham Young and his followers determined to burn Salt Lake City to the ground rather than allow a single federal officer so much as a potato from the ground. Hostilities and tensions run high as Skye leads his bedraggled charges into the deserts of southeastern Utah. They go there with the hope that the dryer warmer air will be a boon to their ravaged lungs.
I should point out that Wheeler portrays church members in the worst possible light with rare exceptions. If you’re a member of the church and have difficulty reading highly negative portrayals of the religion’s early members, you can probably leave this unexplored.
There are exceptions, but most of those whom Skye meet treat these 10 children like they are the ultimate plague perhaps even sent by the government to destroy them. Skye must shepherd these 10 kids through the high tension and hostility of the locals while dealing with suspicion and unrest from the Indians he meets. At one point, it looks like there’s no way Skye can succeed.
Wheeler weaves the horrific historical account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre into this book. That’s a nasty bit of business that resulted in the wrongful even shameful deaths of far too many.
Barnaby Skye escaped the British Navy which had forced him into servitude as a teenager in London. For years, he lived as a trapper and mountain man in the then-sparsely populated American west. But economies change, and kye turned from trapping to guiding restless Americans across the hostile and often intemperate West.
As this book opens, one of his two Indian wives has borne him a son. He calls the boy Dirk, and his mother gives him the Indian name for North Star. Certain that his meager money supply won’t be enough to raise the child, Skye takes on additional and more lucrative guide work. In this book, he is guide to 10 children from New England, all of whom suffer from various stages of Tuberculosis. His travels take him through Utah in 1857. Utah in 1857 is no place to be if you can help it. Brigham Young and the members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ have taken a stand against the feckless James Buchanan. Some say Buchanan approved of the war between the Latter-Day Saints and the federal government as a distraction from the far deeper problems among the southern states. Feeling cornered and angry, Brigham Young and his followers determined to burn Salt Lake City to the ground rather than allow a single federal officer so much as a potato from the ground. Hostilities and tensions run high as Skye leads his bedraggled charges into the deserts of southeastern Utah. They go there with the hope that the dryer warmer air will be a boon to their ravaged lungs.
I should point out that Wheeler portrays church members in the worst possible light with rare exceptions. If you’re a member of the church and have difficulty reading highly negative portrayals of the religion’s early members, you can probably leave this unexplored.
There are exceptions, but most of those whom Skye meet treat these 10 children like they are the ultimate plague perhaps even sent by the government to destroy them. Skye must shepherd these 10 kids through the high tension and hostility of the locals while dealing with suspicion and unrest from the Indians he meets. At one point, it looks like there’s no way Skye can succeed.
Wheeler weaves the horrific historical account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre into this book. That’s a nasty bit of business that resulted in the wrongful even shameful deaths of far too many.
March 26, 2021
A refreshing and probably more realistic version of how the west was settled by dreamers and honest people who just wanted a better life. Not everyone was a scheming, trigger-happy dare devil. Great writer of historical fiction
February 22, 2024
Plodding prose and stilted dialogue in a Western.
Made it 7% of the way through.
Made it 7% of the way through.
July 3, 2008
This was a very unusual book about the Mormon emigration to the West and the ensuing "war" with the United States. There's a surprise ending which I won't give away. Interesting, thought-provoking, disturbing plot!
May 3, 2010
a tale of a treck to UT to save the lives of children in 1857. this made this reader angry but yet understand that TB is easliy transmitted. A sad story
May 7, 2015
Great story about "lungers" and their trip west. Does not have a happy ending.
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March 16, 2016Ok western; one of his Barnaby Skye novels where he leads a group of "consumptives" to Mormon Utah.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews