Congratulations to my friend Richard Wheeler on the starred review from Publishers Weekly on his new book CANYON OF BONES. They wrote, in part:
Spur Award-winner Wheeler adds this splendid 15th
volume to his superb Skye’s West series about
redoubtable mountain man Barnaby Skye…Wheeler is
one of the best western authors around today. He doesn’t rely on epic
battles or gunfights to tell his stories, relying instead on
fascinating characters, vivid imagery, subtle action and carefully
drawn historical detail.
Is this a sequel to “Badlands?” If I recall, that novel also involved a guide leading a group to a valley of bones.
Thanks for your interest. No, Badlands was a stand-alone title involving some early paleontologists going to the Dakota Badlands and getting into trouble with the Sioux. This is one of my Skye’s West series. Skye and his two wives take a nasty character based on Sir Richard Burton into the Missouri Breaks. The stories do have a few themes in common.
Skyefan evokes memories. About 1990, my publishers wanted me to do a breakout book, a big, splashy novel with market appeal. They would put some serious marketing muscle behind it. They suggested that I take an outline for a Skye novel that I had submitted, and change the guide into someone else and go from there. So Badlands did have its origin in a Skye story. In Badlands, the guide, Crowe, takes some Smithsonian-sponsored scientists, along with a daring British lady and her chaperone, into the wilderness. The publishers did market it handsomely, and it sold well.