The Winter Wolf: Wyatt Earp in Alaska - Hardcover

Parry, Richard

3.72

29 ratings by Goodreads

9780312860172: The Winter Wolf: Wyatt Earp in Alaska

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031286017X ISBN 13: 9780312860172

Publisher: Forge, 1996

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Wyatt Earp and his third wife, Josephine Marcus Earp, go to Alaska to strike it rich in the gold mines, but end up struggling for their lives when Earp's illegitimate son, Nathan Baylock, arrives in search of revenge on Earp for deserting his mother Mattie sixteen years earlier.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Parry's first hardcover launches the latter-day equivalent of a dime-novel series featuring an errant naif (Wyatt Earp's bastard son) and a worldly-wise sidekick who muddle through antic adventures on turn-of-the-century America's vanishing frontiers. Upon turning 16 in 1898, Nathan Blaylock (who has been raised in a Denver orphanage run by Catholic nuns) learns that his mother Mattie died ten years earlier. Before expiring, however, the former dancehall girl wrote a letter promising young Nathan $20,000 if he could kill the legendary lawman who fathered him and then abandoned her. A rank tenderfoot, Nathan is fortunate enough to join forces with Jim Riley, a down-on-his-luck gunslinger who agrees to help the boy in return for a share of the blood money. While traveling across the Southwest, the greenhorn teaches the aging saddle tramp how to read and write; under Jim's expert tutelage, Nate also becomes a crack shot. Along the way, the two save J.C. Hennison, a surgeon turned snake-oil salesman, from a lynch mob. With Doc in tow, they hop a train to San Francisco (where Earp has been living). On the trip, Nate and Jim rescue a wealthy Chinaman and his delectable concubine from an assault by ruffian passengers; the elderly Asian succumbs to his injuries, but not before willing Wei- Li to Nate. Now a foursome, the group reaches the Bay Area too late to catch Earp, who's off to Alaska with a hoard of fellow gold rushers. The quartet go in pursuit. Many murderous brawls and a couple of hard prospecting seasons later, Wei-Li dies in childbirth, leaving Nate a son; and shortly thereafter the 50ish Earp and the distraught young man he never knew had been born come face-to-face. Following a shootout with some archvillains, the ex- marshal and his spitting image part as friends. Divertingly tall tales told in appropriately mock-heroic fashion. Most readers will look forward to Nate's return. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

In real life, the aging Wyatt Earp traveled with his third wife, Josephine (Josie) Marcus Earp, to Skagway and Nome, Alaska, trying to strike it rich in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. Parry (Ice Warrior) exploits this little-known historical fact in a fast-moving, appealingly offbeat western. The legendary marshall is forced to return to law enforcement to aid Frank Leslie, a friend from his Tombstone days. Haunted by the events of the OK Corral, which left one brother dead and another crippled, Wyatt is also stalked by more immediate danger. Nathan Blaylock, the son he never knew he had, is sent by the dying wish of his vengeful, drug-crazed mother to kill Wyatt. The story follows Wyatt and Josie in Alaska, as well as Nathan as he pursues his deadly mission. Other historical characters include con-man Soapy Smith ("the scourge of Skagway") and the Spoilers (a criminal ring determined to corner Alaskan gold by any means). The inevitable confrontation between father and son packs genuine emotional wallop. Parry, who lives in Alaska, skillfully evokes both era and place. The novel, which launches a series that will carry Nathan into the 20th century, should please both fans of westerns and of historical fiction.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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