D B Holy

The Fur Seekers
© 2010 W.R. Benton and D.B. Holy

When college professor William Hatchworth kills a rich English merchant and his loving wife is murdered, he flees to the shining mountains to live. He knows he'll see little justice in town because he is not wealthy and law is for the rich. The dead man's father reaches out from England, determined to see Hatchworth killed, regardless of the cost.

A young lad, Joshua Franklin, also runs to the mountains after Indians attack the supply wagon's his father is brining to the annual fur Rendezvous . All are killed at the wagons, except Joshua and an old mountain man called Pike. Meeting Hatchworth, now called Bear because of his size, he and the other trappers try to avoid retired English Brigadier General James Wilcox, the brother of the dead man. But, when fellow officer Colonel Winston Holmes kills a friend of the mountain men, named Whiskey, the chase is on. The English General, Wilcox, is killed by Whiskey, but his assistant Colonel Winston Holmes escapes, and nothing will stop Bear in his quest for revenge. He follows the man to Fort Langley, Canada, hoping to the end the chase, but Holmes has returned home to English. While most men would have given up, Bear does not, and goes to England with Joshua.

Joshua, now called Deacon because of his deep religious beliefs, finds England is a deadly place to hunt a man. Eventually Holmes accepts a duel with Bear and chooses swords, suspecting the mountain man knows nothing about fencing, or does he?

The Widow Nancy Buck
© 2010 W.R. Benton and D.B. Holy

In the late 1880's, aging widow Nancy Buck is looking forward to spending her last few remaining years on the ranch her husband, John, carved out of the burning desert in Arizona. On his last hunt John is killed in a rock slide and now the widow is being pressured by a local rancher to sell out. As an old Indian fighter and frontier woman, Nancy Buck is used to fighting and is more than willing to take the fight to the source, but she's not as young as she used to be. Joined by a friend of her husbands, Coon, Nancy and her son, Isaac, soon have their hands full keeping what is hers.

Middle-aged Harman Buck, Nancy's rich brother-in-law, decides to move to Arizona and take up ranching. Befriending a young black boy, after the young man's father is killed, Harmon takes him under his wing, and teaches him how to survive in the harsh and brutal desert. He has no idea of the problems Nancy faces, but he's a fighter from way back and there is little give in Harman Buck.

The Apache tribe is crowded into the mountains surrounding Tobacco Flats, where they are starved, treated like animals, and hunted by the U.S. Army. Nantan , who has been adopted by the Apache tribe as a baby, is severely injured by white men and found by Coon. Taking the Apache back to Nancy, the old man has no idea of the repercussions of his actions.

With the help of Coon, Isaac, and Harman Buck, can Nancy hold onto her ranch? The final show down takes place in Tobacco Flats and only one man will walk away alive.

Header image © 2004 Copyright Melanie D. Calvert, All rights Reserved.

Books Covers © 2010 Copyright Melanie D. Calvert, All rights Reserved.