Bøger af Patrick Dearen

2023 FINALIST, PEACEMAKER AWARD OF WESTERN FICTIONEERS2023 FINALIST, WILL ROGERS MEDALLION AWARDIt's 1917, and the Mexican Revolution has the Big Bend of Texas aflame. But the firestorm is no greater than the one inside newspaper reporter Jack Landon. Disillusioned, he flees down the road to nowhere and finds himself in Esperanza. Populated by people of Mexican heritage, the small village on the Texas bank of the Rio Grande is a target of Texas Rangers Company B, which unjustly considers it a bandit den.Jack befriends a teenaged boy and his adult sister, Mary, who teaches in the Esperanza school. As Jack assimilates to life in Esperanza, the threat of Rangers looms large. Eventually a day of reckoning descends, and it envelops Jack and Mary and the entire village.This novel is based on what actually happened at Porvenir, Texas, on January 28, 1918-the darkest moment in Texas Rangers history.

Spur Award-Winning Author Patrick DearenSTARFLIGHT TO ETERNITY(a.k.a. Starflight to Faroul)"I held the secret of creation in my hands, but I lost it and can never have it again!"Starflight to Eternity, a wizened old man named Kasterfayette has returned from deep space, bearing a strange tale of the planet Faroul. This legendary world is said to be a place where time began and ends, and where a man may gain the power to create. But Faroul is much more, for it holds the destiny of the universe.Alan Burke, a young officer assigned to a starship, deserts when superiors hurl missiles against his home planet. Turning to space piracy, he takes vengeance by preying on government ships. During an attack on a transport, Burke rescues Kasterfayette, a top-secret prisoner who whispers in his dying breaths the location of Faroul.Along with a vicious conspirator called Poteet, a prostitute named Davon, and a young man he loves as a son, Burke sets out on a perilous interstellar journey for Faroul and the deepest secrets of the cosmos.

"For nineteen years, Wash Baker has been haunted by the memory of a cattle drive and firing into the night at what he thought was a grizzly, only to kill his young son and narrowly miss a second boy, Trey. Now, in 1899, confirmed tracks of grizzly-a species of bear unknown in Texas-have been found at a Davis Mountains camp meeting attended by Wash and his daughter, Grace. The congregants include Trey, now an adult and courting Grace, and Trey's father, Ed Mulholland. During the cattle drive, Mulholland's big talk about the dangers of a grizzly led Wash to panic and fire the fatal load of buckshot. Wash has long hated Mulholland, and even indoctrinated Grace from a young age to exact revenge on him someday. Now, with all of them striking out to hunt down this confirmed grizzly, Wash has a chance to right the wrongful shot of years ago and perhaps deliver judgment on Mulholland. Accompanying the party are Tommy, Wash's intellectually disabled hand whose affinity for Mulholland's mistreated bloodhound Sleuth is fated to cause strife. Also riding along is Isom, the camp meeting preacher who desperately searches for peace after losing his wife and newborn. Meanwhile, up from Mexico have come twelve-year-old Rosindo Mesa and his sister. In the Fronterizas range, the same grizzly has killed their father, and a curandero (healer) has told Rosindo that his father will be doomed to wander the nights as a spirit unless the boy kills the silver bear before the next full moon rises an hour into the sky. For both parties, the search for the bear, and for peace, becomes a matter of survival, as nature resists and personalities clash. Finally, on lofty Baldy Peak, the full moon rises-and Wash, Rosindo, and the others come face-to-face with not only the grizzly, but their destinies. This novel is based on the actual 1899 hunt for the only documented grizzly ever found in Texas"--

In his newest book, Devils River, Patrick Dearen traces the 400-year history of the notorious river from the time of the first Spanish explorers to the modernization of southwestern Texas and the coming of the railroad.

Spur Award-Winning Author A story that could have come out of today's headlines, this revised edition of the acclaimed novel explores a Mexican national's desperate attempt to provide for his family. Ricardo has known only poverty in Mexico, but he dreams of a better life in the United States. He enlists a "coyote" to smuggle him across the Rio Grande, a river that separates not only one nation from another, but one world from another.The Illegal Man is also the story of Ann Rawlings, a recent widow struggling to preserve her West Texas ranch. There is a troubled Border Patrolman and her bigoted foreman, who considers Mexican ranch hands to be little more than animals. For Ricardo, it's a world in which he will suffer hardship and indignity, but one he will gladly endure to support his family.The Illegal Man grew out of a newspaper series by Patrick Dearen, who interviewed Mexican and American officials and accompanied Border Patrolmen along the Rio Grande. He based his character Ricardo on an actual Mexican national he interviewed on a West Texas ranch."A warm, gripping novel that explores a subject of intense interest to all Americans. Wonderfully told, this novel should endure." -Norman Zollinger, two-time Spur Award winner."A vivid description of what a common man goes through seeking work in a different country than his own. It is a powerful story filled with adventure, sadness, persecution, and loneliness." -San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times."Dearen's writing is so perfect, so descriptive, so charged with emotion, it sucks the reader into the very marrow of the story. . . Stretches the mind and the heart as the good and the bad in life play out on its pages . . . It is a good story: a story of love, of justice, and of redemption." -Permian Historical Annual."A beautifully written story that speaks eloquently." -Roundup Magazine.

A man either chases his dreams, or he dies. Present-day ranch hand Charlie Lyles longs for an era before mechanization, when a cowboy's greatest ally was his horse. He remembers stories of cattle drives and stampedes and shallow graves in lonesome country. Society has pushed Charlie toward a conformity that he hates, but he is about to change the rules. At a remote line shack in West Texas, he steals a horse, leaving a perfectly good pickup behind. His theft leads to a manhunt with a helicopter and assault weapons, but his trackers are headed into territory that hasn't changed in a century . . . and they are trailing a man born a hundred years too late.A Spur Award finalist, When Cowboys Die has been acclaimed as "spellbinding" and "an instant classic." This new volume, the first print edition in twenty-five years, includes a preface and "Requiem for a Cowboy," a documented account of the 1976 Texas manhunt that inspired the novel.

Eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings has always wanted to be a cowboy. Now, in the spring of 1868, he has his chance. His uncle is driving a cattle herd across Texas, and Fish is going with him as far as Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. Little does Fish know that he is saddling up for the wildest rides of his life.With his cousin Gid, Fish is about to face mean broncs, angry longhorns, and a dozen cowboys ready to play pranks. The days ahead will be filled with sandstorms and stampedes, lightning and twisters. It's the roughest stretch of cattle trail in Texas, and it will either make a cowhand out of a boy or break him.

The Big Bend of Texas is a mysterious place in 1869. Legend has it that there's a lost gold mine in the Chisos Mountains. Twelve-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid have heard all about it. But when they discover a dying Indian in the desert, they have reason to believe it.Suddenly the boys find themselves with a great secret. No one else knows the way to the last Chisos mines-but do they dare? To find it, they must cross a desert prowled by Apache warriors. They must ride a trail haunted by devil animals and Indian spooks. Even with the help of a young Apache boy, the journey won't be easy.And what will they do if they succeed?

It''s 1867 and eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin are headed across Texas on a wagon train. But the trail is full of danger. A Comanche war party is on the prowl, looking for horses and scalps. Among the Indians is eleven year old Hunting Bear, who is riding his first war trail. Before the journey is over, he must prove himself worthy to be a warrior.Fish has been taught to hate Comanches. Hunting Bear has been taught to hate white men. But all of that changes when the two boys come face to face and become friends.Suddenly the lives of their peoples rest on the boys'' shoulders. The Comanches have sworn to attack the wagon train. The white men have vowed to fight back and track down the warriors. Soon there will be bloodshed, and only Fish and Hunting Bear have a chance to stop it. But will they find a way?

This first book-length study of the entire Pecos traces the river's environmental history from the arrival of the first Europeans in the sixteenth century to today. Patrick Dearen, who has written about the Pecos since the 1980s, draws on more than 150 interviews and a wealth of primary sources to trace the river's evolution.

The Big Bend of Texas is a mysterious place in 1869. Legend has it that there's a lost gold mine in the Chisos Mountains. Twelve-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid have heard all about it. But when they discover a dying Indian in the desert, they have reason to believe it.Suddenly the boys find themselves with a great secret. No one else knows the way to the last Chisos mines-but do they dare? To find it, they must cross a desert prowled by Apache warriors. They must ride a trail haunted by devil animals and Indian spooks. Even with the help of a young Apache boy, the journey won't be easy.And what will they do if they succeed?

From true cowhands who stood tall in the saddle as the prototypes of the American myth, historian Patrick Dearen has collected priceless, spellbinding stories of a simpler era when a man's word was his bond and a cowhand rode hard and lived harder. Within the pages of this book these genuine legends who rode through a golden moment in American history live on.

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.

First published in 1988, Castle Gap and the Pecos Frontier was acclaimed by reviewers as ""superb"", ""significant"", and ""utterly delightful"". In this revised edition, Patrick Dearen draws on the latest in scholarship to update his study of the Pecos River country of West Texas. It's a land wild with tales that blend history, geography, and folklore, and from his search emerge six fascinating accounts.

Fourteen-year-old Josh and his friend Shan are facing hard times on their families' farms in Central Texas in 1934. It's the days of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, and rain is as scarce as money. With the long dry spell have come wild animals with flashing teeth and deadly rabies. Dust storms known as black blizzards are raging, threatening lives and destroying cropland.Will a rainmaker bring rain? Will their families lose their homes? Will Josh's and Shan's friendship survive?From rabid animal attacks to a deadly flood to a barreling freight train, Josh is in for an adventure he will never forget.

Will Brite is a Slash Five cowboy working in the Middle Concho region of Texas in the winter of 1884 when a blizzard descends upon him-the likes of which he has never seen. Trapped under his horse and entangled in a barbed wire fence, Will finds an unexpected (and unwelcome) saviour in the form of Zeke Boles, a former slave on the run from a bloody, guilt-filled past.

Tom Rowden has been riding away from the Pecos River for twenty years, plagued by the haunting image of his wife, Sarah, the second before he killed her. Now, he is dead-set on returning to her unmarked grave above the river to make one final atonement. His journey is interrupted when a group of Mexican bandits burn down the 7L's ranch house, kill the ranch boss, and rape and abduct his daughter, Liz Anne. The 7L's greenhorn wagon boss, Jess Graham, desperately begs for Tom's help in rescuing Liz Anne, the girl Jess loves. Tom obliges and sets out with Jess and his posse of ranch hands through a hellish desert landscape toward the Pecos River. For Jess, it is his first journey through the desert; Tom hopes it is his last.The journey slowly wears down the group of cowboys, who must face deadly foes, choking dust clouds, and rabid wolf attacks. To stay alive, they also must fight against personal desires and a growing sense of hopelessness, but the most deadly enemy remains the scorching desert, threatening to erase life at any second.Liz Anne, meanwhile, must also fight on through the desert, holding on to what dignity she has left, trying to slow down her captors long enough for her rescue party to catch up. Her captors reach the pools hidden in a canyon just a few miles away from the Pecos River and set an ambush for the rescuers. Will the posse be killed by the ambush? Will Jess ever get back his precious Liz Anne? Will Tom be able to make it the last few miles to the Pecos River and find absolution? Discover all the answers in Patrick Dearen's exciting new tale, To Hell or the Pecos.

Presents a collection of stories that spring from the bedrock shared with the author by native sons and daughters who know that the real treasure is Texas heritage.

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.