Rod Miller è un autore versatile celebrato per le sue avvincenti narrazioni del West americano, che spesso approfondiscono temi di onore, perseveranza e la bellezza selvaggia della frontiera. La sua prosa e poesia evocano un forte senso del luogo e del tempo, catturando le crude realtà e l'essenza mitica della vita ai confini. Lo stile di Miller è caratterizzato da un linguaggio ricco e da una profonda comprensione del contesto storico e culturale, offrendo ai lettori uno sguardo arricchente sull'anima del West.
""Rawhide Robinson sails across the sea to help the Army acquire camels for military service in the desert Southwest. In America, the ungainly camels cause nothing but upheaval and a desert challenge is mounted"--
Set in a desolate desert, a roadhouse serves as the last stop for weary travelers on an abandoned stagecoach route. The establishment offers basic accommodations and is run by a crude proprietor, creating a rough atmosphere. A regular mail carrier senses that the roadhouse holds dark secrets, leading him to suspect that for some visitors, it may be a final destination rather than a mere pit stop. The story unfolds with themes of isolation, survival, and the hidden dangers lurking in remote places.
"Jonathan Collins is a relatively young man when he loses a leg in the Civil War, but he quickly learns to cope. He carves his own wooden leg, then he turns his skills to making coffins and, finally, undertaking. Since both trades are best plied where there's a constant need, he sets up shop in violent towns, and in one of those towns he meets Wild Bill Hickock. These towns are no place for a lonely man, so Jon, now nicknamed "Pinebox," relocates to Utah, meets a girl, and learns real carpentry; but then his hopes for the future are dashed and the girl is lost. Pinebox takes up drinking alone. Soon, his story revolves around meetings with Hickock. Each visit involves outlawry and requires a new wooden leg. Even after Hickock dies, he still calls to Pinebox, and there is a story there in the cards carved on Pinebox's latest leg. Miller's latest (Father unto Many Sons, 2018) is a mystery for Western lovers"--
Set against the backdrop of the Old West, the narrative follows Daniel Boone Trewick, who escapes a violent conflict in Missouri by joining a freighting team to Santa Fe. He partners with Thomas "Pegleg" Smith on a daring horse-stealing expedition to California. Meanwhile, Juan Medina, a young vaquero wrongfully imprisoned, is forced to join a posse hunting the thieves. As they navigate the dangers of their pursuits, Boone and Juan unite to transform their stolen bounty into a chance for a better life, amidst the tragic loss of a thousand horses in the Mojave Desert.
Spur Award-winning author, Rod Miller, brings us a page-turning historical fiction novel. Is Lee Pate a man of principle or a misguided dreamer? Troubled by the institution of slavery, he uproots his family--wife, Sarah, and sons, Richard, Melvin, and Abel--without notice and heads west. Lee sends his sons back to Tennessee on a quest that will change the relationship between the brothers forever. In Fort Smith, the Pate family meets the Lewises, a Mormon family fleeing persecution in Missouri. Together, they follow a barely explored trail to the Mexican Province of New Mexico. The travelers face many difficulties, but family struggles prove the most formidable obstacle. Testing the strength of family ties, Father unto Many Sons tells a story as old as time in a new country.
The book highlights the largely overlooked conflict with the Shoshoni tribe, revealing it as a significant yet brutal chapter in the history of Indian massacres in the West. It details the extreme violence faced by the Shoshoni, surpassing even the infamous events at Wounded Knee and Sand Creek. Through this lens, the narrative sheds light on the harsh realities of this tragic period, emphasizing the need for recognition and understanding of these historical events.
SPUR AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR ROD MILLER Justice Payne built a town on an island in a river. He owns all the land and buildings as well as many of the businesses that occupy the buildings, and collects rent and taxes from the others. As self-appointed judge, mayor, tax assessor, and holder of every other office of note, Justice controls all aspects of life in his town. Most accept the situation, if grudgingly. All, that is, except for Mercy O'Malley, owner and madam of a profitable brothel on the island. Justice and Mercy are often at odds. He suspects her of short-changing him financially and she resents his autocratic highhanded manner. Mercy foments a strike and a revolt, demanding elections. Will Justice prevail? Will Mercy? Follow the rollicking conflict through the pages of Justice and Mercy.
"The new life they find in New Mexico is not what the Pate and Lewis families hoped for. Driven by disagreements with their father, eldest sons Richard and Melvin abandon the Pate family to join eastbound freighters on the Santa Fe Trail, an antidote that provides no relief. Younger brother Abel works with his father to build a ranching empire atop the Pajarito Plateau, while the Lewis family establishes a thriving mercantile network in Santa Fe and outlying communities. The families you met in Father unto Many Sons return in This Thy Brother as they face the challenges of poverty, discrimination, war, graft, rustlers, romance, and the harsh realities of life in the desert Southwest. Together, the families work for prosperity while the departed sons turn toward a different future. Will a tenuous foothold in a new land hold firm? Can the broken families survive? Will-can-the prodigal sons return? Seek answers to these and other questions in the pages of This Thy Brother"--
When Rawhide Robinson, babysitting a herd of beeves on a train bound forChicago, reads about a rat infestation in the mining boomtown of Tombstone, hehatches a plan that results in yet another string of extraordinary adventures.Retired mountain man Longshot Hawken shows the way down the Santa Fe Trail. ArloAxelrod ramrods a reluctant cowboy crew of Zeb Howard, Johnny Londo, TonyMorales, and Frenchy Leroux. And as if handling an unpredictable herd wasn’ttrouble enough, the shiftless Buckskin Zimmer does his best to do the worst tocrew and critters. Then, the designing Don Carlos Valencia’s woeful wooing ofthe magnificent Magdalena Maria Martinez y Montez de Monterrey forces her tothrow in with the cowboy band in an attempt to escape his clutches. And allalong the way, Rawhide Robinson holds the enterprise together as he meets everyadventure head-on, and regales his drovers—and anybody else who will listen—withcampfire tales of insane adventures, exploits, and escapades experiencedelsewhere during his extraordinary cowboy career on the western frontier.
"January 29, 1863. United States Army troops attack a Shoshoni village on the banks of the Bear River in what is now southeastern Idaho. Four hours later, the army abandons the field, leaving behind the dead bodies of some three hundred men, women, and children. This all-but-forgotten massacre stands today as the worst killing of Indians by the military in the history of the American West. In the pages of And the River Ran Red, four-time Spur Award-winning author Rod Miller puts human faces and feelings on this incomparable tragedy. Follow Shoshoni leaders Bear Hunter and Sagwitch, military officers Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and Major Edward F. McGarry, Mormon leader Brigham Young, and frontiersman Porter Rockwell in a tapestry of intrigue and violence leading up to the massacre, and its aftermath. Chilling in its detail, scrupulous in its portrayal of history, And the River Ran Red sheds light on a dark day that deserves to come out of the shadows and find its place in the history of the West"--