Bøger af Gary Mccarthy

After days of rain and storms, Maddie O'Brien is restless to venture out into the forest. Little could she know that while walking with her beloved grandfather, they will come upon a nest of eleven turkey eggs protected by their dying mother. Maddie and Otis can't save the brave wild turkey hen, yet they are determined to hatch out and raise her feisty poults. But times are hard for the O'Brien family and as Thanksgiving looms ever nearer, it seems certain that Maddie's beloved turkeys are destined for the roaster and the holiday dinner table. How can Maddie O'Brien save her turkeys and still help her family pay its bills? That is the challenge and when you read this delightful and unforgettable sequel to MADDIE O'BRIEN'S CHRISTMAS DONKEYS, you'll discover how love, bravery and the spirit of Maddie's wild turkeys prove to be a blessing for the O'Brien family and their entire Northern Arizona town. And you will also learn something about the noble wild turkey that Benjamin Franklin once believed courageous enough to replace the bald eagle as America's greatest symbol of freedom. Gobble...gobble! Gobble...gobble!

Isaac Beard ... a giant who works hard and honestly for every small blessing, including his frail but loving wife. Now comes another spring in the bustling riverfront town of St. Louis where Isaac stands behind a merchant's counter wearing an apron and suffering the insults of his father-in-law. Isaac dreams of the high mountains where a man can make his fortune trapping beaver in a single season. He means to buy Mr. Wilke's mercantile store for his family's future. Jim Savage ... he offers Isaac a chance to learn to trap beaver in the Shining Mountains. But Savage is filled with demons...enough to get Isaac and himself scalped. Nathan Beard ... he grew up hearing of his father's legends as the best of the mountain men...but blames Isaac for the death of his mother. Nathan tracks Isaac to the Rocky Mountains intending to kill him. Matthew Beard ... the youngest and fiercest of the Beard men, he is determined to make his fortune buying ships to supply the Forty-Niners. A gambler, fearless fighter and rogue, Matthew will discover peace on the high seas and on the great Colorado River paddlewheel steamers. And one day he will find his brother and finally learn the truths about his famed mountain man father. From the wild waterfront of St. Louis...to the Shining Mountains, home of the Ute People...across the blistering deserts to the famed Forty-Niner Gold Rush...and finally to the dangers of navigating the mighty and untamed Colorado River, this is an epic saga of a mountain man named Isaac Beard and his two adventurous sons.

What if. . .Elvis had met someone like Cowboy Charlie, his beautiful sister, Stella and wise Hopi grandmother, Lucy Yoyetewa in the last years of his fabulous career? In the summer of 1972, Cowboy Charlie is trying to live up to his father's reputation as a world-class bull rider when he climbs on the notorious Buzzard at Winslow, Arizona's All-Indian Rodeo. The huge black bull is determined not only to buck Cowboy Charlie off, but to destroy him. Elvis Presley sees the rodeo just off old Route 66 and asks his chauffeur to pull in so they can watch. Moments later, Elvis comes to Cowboy Charlie's rescue, bravely distracting the bull and rushing Cowboy Charlie to the emergency room in Flagstaff. And so begins the unlikely friendship of two men from completely different worlds. Elvis will teach Cowboy Charlie how to be a Las Vegas showroom performer...and the hard-working, down-to-earth ranching family will show Elvis a wholesome and deeply satisfying way to live. They will also begin to unravel the dark mystery of what happened to Charlie and Stella's white mother, caught in a love triangle and forever lost on the high, wind-swept Hopi Mesas.

The fabulous Forty-Niner Gold Rush brought gold-fevered men from all over the world to San Francisco and then on to the raging Sierra Nevada rivers. They rode fast horses, drove wagons and even walked across the Great Plains, but many died or were scalped. Other argonauts boarded majestic sailing ships . . . some of which vanished in the wild storms of Cape Horn. Heather McKenna was left behind with her father in a squalid neighborhood of New York by her brother, Dennis, a dreamer ill-suited to the rigors of the Sierras. And so it is up to Heather to escape New York and a bleak future. Heather dreams of someday becoming an independent and wealthy California woman. She will use her brains and beauty to gain ship's passage then fall in love with a handsome seaman even while being courted by a rich and irresponsible rogue. In this full-blooded epic tale of hardship, adventure and triumph, Heather McKenna will overcome the malaria infested jungles of Panama, raging oceans and the lustful, scheming men of San Francisco in order to achieve her dreams of Gold & Lace.

"Joaquín Murieta Was My Friend" is the story of an unlikely friendship forged in the days of the historic 1849 gold rush when California's population exploded with dreamers and rogues. Among the former is Michael Callahan who has survived a perilous ocean voyage around Cape Horn with equally ambitious Paddy Ryan. Both Irishmen are determined to strike it rich in the swift, cold rivers that flow down the western slopes of the High Sierras. During a dramatic chance encounter, Michael Callahan will meet the legendary outlaw Joaquín Murieta who vows vengeance against those who had raped and beaten his beautiful wife to death. "Joaquín Murieta Was My Friend" is about love, courage and above all, an enduring friendship that transcends racial hatred. Historically accurate, told by Michael Callahan who has also become known as "The Gringo Amigo" this is a novel that not only is sure to entertain, but also carry its readers into those wild times of early Gold Rush California.

On the vast and indescribably beautiful South Rim of the Grand Canyon a young Hualapai boy faces a bleak future in 1902. River Thunder's mother has just passed into the Spirit World and his father has nothing left to give the boy except his hand carved flute and his magical gift for music. It is a time in America's history when Native American children were separated from their loving families, tribes and even their ancient and traditional cultures and sent to distant "Indian Schools" for re-education and vocational training. River Thunder will carry his flute, courage and trusting innocence to the Hackberry Day School still standing today on old Route 66 while never once imagining how his fate will one day soar like an eagle over the magnificent Grand Canyon. His life's journey will carry River Thunder into a tender but forbidden love and the terrifying but exhilarating experience of aerial warfare fought in a World War I biplane. RIVER THUNDER was the recipient of the prestigious Western Writers of America's 2009 Spur Award for Best Western Audio Book. The story begins in the early 1900's and ends shortly after World War I, and is set against the harsh background of Arizona's rugged northern mountains and the magnificent Grand Canyon.

"Our American West, Volume 4" completes this collection of stories written by master storyteller and national award-winning author Gary McCarthy, and after reading it you might well decide that he has saved his best and favorites for last. "The Lewis and Clark Expedition" proved once and for all that the storied and hoped for "River across America" didn't exist. And did you know that, if the Russians had held on a little longer at Fort Ross, California might have been their greatest prize? Long before the Forty-Niner Gold Rush a diminutive but courageous priest named "Fr. Junipero Serra" sacrificed everything to bring Christianity to the gentle coastal Native Americans while faithfully establishing a string of beautiful California missions. "Old Time Snake Oil Peddlers and Con Men" were artists of deceit, but they couldn't have peddled their elixirs and cures without liberal doses of pure-grain alcohol. "The First Hollywood Cowboys" takes us back to the B-grade movies and great cowboy stars like 'William S. Hart', 'Bob Steel', 'Hoot Gibson', 'Hopalong Cassidy', 'Roy Rogers' and 'Gene Autry', while a visit to the "Custer Battlefield" reminds us that foolish pride and ambition can lead to tragedy. Outlaws like "Jesse James" and "Sam Bass" feared the famed "Texas Rangers" while "Wyatt Earp and His Deadly Brothers" had a well deserved reputation for being lightning fast and deadly accurate with a sixgun. From the "First Mountain Men" to the great "Texas Longhorn" drives and on to the visionary naturalist "John Muir" who passionately advocated for our wonderful National Park system after falling in love with Yosemite...it's all written on these pages in a highly entertaining style. This collection of fast-reading and well-researched stories about our early western people, places and events will linger with you long after you've turned the last page of "Our American West, Volume 4."

After many years of lonely prospecting in Arizona's Superstition Mountains with his ornery mule, Maggot, Bruin Henry finally discovers a rich vein of pure gold. Filled with the heartfelt intention to use his newfound fortune for redemption after a life of wild and sinful living, Bruin Henry rushes off to Prescott to file his claim. But in Arizona's territorial capitol, he discovers that his long-lost daughter is dying and that he has a spirited fourteen-year-old granddaughter, Ophelia. Wanted posters offering reward money claim that Bruin Henry is a murdering stagecoach robber whose last job resulted in a cold-blooded murder of innocent passengers. Only Bruin knows that it wasn't him who did the killing, but instead Ophelia's father. If Bruin Henry honors his daughter's dying wish to find and re-unite Link Cochran and Ophelia, he is almost certain to die at the killer's hand. But how can he refuse his daughter's death-bed wish and his very last chance for redemption? Formerly published as "Restitution."

National award winning western and historical novelist Gary McCarthy brings together the cast from two of his most popular and long running series - The Horsemen and The Derby Man.Several years have passed since Ruff, Dixie and Houston Ballou fled Civil War-ravaged Tennessee with two of their great thoroughbred stallions and a handful of mares. The displaced Ballou family has been looking for a place to build a horse ranch and racetrack when a series of events take them to the beautiful Prescott Valley, home of Fort Whipple and Arizona's new Territorial capital.In a blinding snowstorm, Darby Buckingham is racing from Santa Fe to Prescott in order to help his longtime love, Miss Dolly. Almost at his destination he helplessly rages at his drunken stagecoach driver to slow down, but the coach overturns and leaves him in desperate circumstances until the Ballou riders and their thoroughbreds appear.And so begins a friendship and adventure in Prescott that will change the lives of these famous characters.