Patrick Dearen ist ein gefeierter Autor, der tief in die Geschichte und Kultur West-Texans eintaucht, insbesondere in das Leben an der Grenze und die Geschichten der Flüsse Pecos und Devils. Durch seine vierzehn Romane und zehn Sachbücher erweckt er authentische Cowboy-Erlebnisse zum Leben und erforscht die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen Menschen und dem Land. Sein Schreiben zeichnet sich durch sorgfältige Recherche und eine Leidenschaft für die Bewahrung schwindender Traditionen und Erzählungen aus.
Author Patrick Dearen brings the reckless and risky adventures of real cowboys to life with colorful stories from interviews with 76 men who cowboyed in the West before 1932 as well as 150 archival interviews and written accounts from as early as the 1870s and well into the mid-twentieth century.
BY THE WINNER OF THE 2015 SPUR AWARD The Pecos River flows snake-like out of New Mexico and across West Texas before striking the Rio Grande. In frontier Texas, the Pecos was more moat than river--a deadly barrier of quicksand, treacherous currents, and impossibly steep banks. Only at its crossings, with legendary names such as Horsehead and Pontoon, could travelers hope to gain passage. Even if the river proved obliging, Indian raiders and outlaws often did not.Long after irrigation and dams rendered the river a polluted trickle, Patrick Dearen went seeking out the crossings and the stories behind them. In Crossing Rio Pecos --a follow-up to his Castle Gap and the Pecos Frontier --he draws upon years of research to relate the history and folklore of all the crossings--Horsehead, Pontoon, Pope's, Emigrant, Salt, Spanish Dam, Adobe, "S," and Lancaster. Meticulously documented, Crossing Rio Pecos emerges as the definitive study of these gateways which were so vital to the opening of the western frontier.
"For two men--one white, one black--the great cattle drift of 1884-1885 in Texas will be a search for redemption"--
Set against the backdrop of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, the story follows fourteen-year-old Josh and his friend Shan as they struggle to survive on their families' farms in Central Texas during 1934. With rain and money both in short supply, they face the dual threats of wild animals carrying rabies and devastating black blizzards that ravage their land. The harsh realities of their environment challenge their resilience and friendship in this gripping tale of survival.
Set during the Great Depression, the story follows Ish Watson as he embarks on a perilous journey aboard a freight train in search of a dying relative on the Texas Gulf Coast. Amidst the desperation of countless others riding the rails, Ish's adventure unfolds against a backdrop of hope and despair, highlighting the struggles of those seeking a better life during one of America's most challenging eras. As he navigates the dangers and uncertainties of the tracks, Ish's fate intertwines with the stories of fellow travelers.
2022 WINNER, ELMER KELTON AWARD, West Texas Historical Association"In 1870, Jake Graves faced a choice: let Comanches carry off his sister, or shoot her. Unwilling to fire, he has been tortured for decades by the brutal end that he could have spared her. The incident bred in him a hatred for Indians that persists to this day in 1917 on an isolated ranch on the Texas-Mexico border. Now Jake learns that his daughter Dru wants to marry Apache foreman Nub DeJarnett. Even before Jake can process the news, Mexican bandits kidnap Dru and her cousin Ruthie. The bandit leader may be a tlehuelpuchi, a shape-shifting agent of evil who needs the women's blood to survive. Through a mysterious desert, Jake and Nub must give chase in this novel based on actual events"--
Spur Award-Winning Author 2019 Elmer Kelton Award Winner Eight months have passed since Sam DeJarnett lost his wife and unborn child to Mescalero Apaches, and now he is one of ten Texas Rangers pursuing those very hostiles in 1881. He lives only for vengeance, and the fresh Mescalero trail in the snow is leading straight into the bitterly cold Sierra Diablo of Texas. In the Mescalero band is Nejeunee, a twenty-year-old woman with a baby. She has lost her husband to the Indaa, or white men, and she lives every moment in hatred. High in the Diablo snows, Sam the Apache hater and Nejeunee the Indaa hater are fated to meet, and what follows will test everything each of them has believed about the other's race. This novel is based on actual events.
Spur Award-Winning Author A deep-space archaeological dig shrouded in mystery . . . Clues to the location of a legendary power in the reaches of the galaxy . . . A man and a woman, each holding half the answers, both defying a totalitarian government. Together, Blake Sharrel and Rhonda Gregory embark on a starship quest to find the Leijan, an enigma that holds the fate of the cosmos. It's an epic journey filled with peril: a crew of pirates ready to slit their throats, a planet where intruders are crucified upside down, and a chase across countless light years of unexplored space. From one planet's Valley of the Skull to another planet's City of the Skull, and on to a derelict spacecraft orbiting a black world, it will be a Starflight to Destiny. "A genuine thrilling and utterly entertaining read. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys classic science fiction."-Shaun Raymond Hoadley, illustrator for books by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
"Five men attempt to rescue the daughter of a rancher murdered by Mexican bandits."--Publisher description.
Clay Andrews is like a dead man, adrift in an uncaring dark. But he's also searching, and in 1869 he rides to the Pecos River. Back in Central Texas Clay's sister died, and only on this river might he learn why. The person responsible may have fled here, a no-man's-land you enter at your peril. Comanche attacks, a kidnapping, a chase through Apache country to Skeleton Cave and on to the Guadalupes, for Clay, the answers will never come unless he rides into a mountain range where Indian spirits are rumored to guard a golden hoard.