The First Dance takes beloved mountain man Barnaby Skye's family to its third generation in North America.

Miles City, Montana. 1885. Barnaby Skye's mixed-blood son, Dirk, has just married a beautiful Metis girl, Therese. But Dirk's position as a civilian translator for the U.S. army threatens to shatter their union.

Montana ranchers wrestling with livestock theft and the incursion of settlers into their range have persuaded the army to send the Metis people back to Canada. The military enlists Dirk to translate between the two sides in the brutal campaign.

Unable to reconcile her love for Dirk with the pain he is inflicting on her people, Therese flees on their wedding night. Heartbroken, Dirk rides off with the army.

Therese has a powerful vision. She is inspired to build a church that will be a gathering place for her people and a symbol of their resistance to deportation.

The suffering refugees--driven into the wilderness by Yankee soldiers and cruel ranch vigilante gangs--find a friend in Dirk and an inspiration in Therese. In their common cause, the lovers are reunited

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Praise for this book

“Wheeler's Westerns just keep getting better and better.” —Publishers Weekly

“One of the best Western writers 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.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wheeler is a writer's writer, whose prose has the authority of hand-set type but sparkles like horseshoes on flint rock.” —Kirkus Reviews

“No one writes Montana better than Richard S. Wheeler.” —Roundup Magazine

“[Wheeler] instills the story with his usual vividly drawn characters and crisply written action scenes. Another winner from a genre stalwart.” —Booklist on The Owl Hunt

“Wheeler has done for the Western what C.S. Forester did for the sea story. Skye is the Horatio Hornblower of the Rockies!” —Rocky Mountain News on The Far Tribes




About the Author

RICHARD S. WHEELER is the author of more than fifty novels of the American West. He holds five Spur Awards and the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to the literature of the West. He lives in Livingston, Montana, near Yellowstone Park, and is married to Sue Hart, an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.


Title: The First Dance : A Barnaby Skye Novel
Author(s): Richard S. Wheeler
Volume: 19
ISBN: 9781429976251
Copyright 2011
Release Date: July 05, 2011
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: mobi,ePub | Learn More about our supported formats
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