Shadow of the Wolf — F.M. Parker

Shadow Of The Wolf is Number 2 of the Coldiron Series. The series has received high praise from national book reviewers such as Booklist, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.With an awesome list of stirring Western novels, F. M. Parker has won acclaim as a master story teller. In Shadow Of The Wolf, he has created a story that thrills the imagination and charges the emotions. The time is 1864 in the Colorado Territory. Luke Coldiron drives a herd of his famous horses from his ranch in the high Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico to Denver City for sale. He wins a huge sum of gold at cards, breaking the bank of the famous gambling parlor Elephant House. In the Battle Of The Wilderness in Virginia, Jubal Clason, Union Army scout, kills his commanding officer, steals his horse and deserts the army and rides away to the west. On the Arkansas River, the Arapaho warrior Ghost Walker returns from a long hunt killing white men to find his woman married to the tribe's war chief. He kills the man for stealing his woman. This makes him an outcast from the tribe. In the mountains near Denver, beautiful Susan Penfold and her husband and brother strike a rich deposit of gold. With their new wealth, they begin the long journey east across the great plains to Boston. Clason and Ghost Walker, two violent, murderous men, join forces to rob and kill for gold, Clason out of greed and Ghost Walker out of hate for white men and the desire for gold to buy weapons for his people. The lives of the four so different people clash in deadly combat when Clason and Ghost Walker shoot and rob Luke and leave him for dead. In pursuit of the robbers, Luke comes upon Susan, whose husband and brother have been killed by Clason and Ghost Walker. Susan barely escaped and is now in pursuit of the killers. Luke and Susan join together to wreak vengeance upon the two murders. They pursue the two men across the blizzard lashed prairie and into the Rocky Mountains to a final, deadly battle. With extraordinary heroes, and with a cast of characters that encompasses the rich mix of men and women who peopled the frontier, Shadow Of The Wolf offers a harsh yet heart-stirring vision of the American past. It combines authenticity with now-stop action and suspense into a thrilling reading experience. From – Coldiron - Shadow Of The Wolf Luke reached out and brushed the cool softness of Susan's cheek with his fingers. She stepped back from him. Why did you do that? It seemed the right thing to do, and I wanted to, Luke replied. My husband has been dead hardly a week, Susan said. Feelings are important, not time or custom. They are important to me. We're not in Massachusetts. We're in the Colorado Territory searching for two men to kill. Does that sound like Massachusetts? There the law would be doing the searching, and if the outlaws were caught, a trial would be held. Here, if we catch them, we'll kill them. Or they'll kill us. Susan shivered with the thought that Luke's words had brought. They were true, and yes, she would kill the murderers. Gladly. I'm cold, Luke. Hold me please and help me get warm. Luke wrapped Susan in his arms and pressed her yielding woman's body tightly against him.