cody

High in the Rockies lay the Bayou Salade, a lush beaver-rich valley so untouched that the few white men who had seen it called it paradise. But for Scratch Bass, his young partner Josiah Paddock, and the two Indian women they loved, this paradise would open up a hell of violence. Pursued by a vengeful Arapaho raiding party, Scratch will lead his small band through a flurry of arrows all the way to Taos itself. Yet the trail of blood will not end there. For in St. Louis an old enemy waits.

They had settled a bloody score and put the turncoat McAfferty to rest in the snowbound Rockies. Slowly, painfully, the wounded Paddock and Scratch found their way back to the Crow village, where they were welcomed as brother and son. The people of Chief Arapooesh offered rest, healing, and home to the mountain men. Then a misunderstanding over a beautiful Crow woman drove the friends apart, propelling Scratch into the unforgiving wilderness on a lonely, dangerous quest. Paddock, too ill to travel, was at first unable to follow, unable to explain.

Young Josiah Paddock, on the run from his past in St. Louis, didn’t have much hope of survival. Winter was coming to the Rockies, and if the cold cutting through his city clothes didn’t kill him, grizzlies or Indians would. Then his luck turned. He stumbled across the trail of Ol’ Scratch, a solitary mountain man eager enough for company to take the brash youngster under his wing.

Jack Skelton is a recent divorcée who is trying to find his way in life. He lost his mother years ago and now, just recently, his father’s gone off the grid. At least he has his hockey team, the Manchester Bears. Yet something pulls at him, as if there was a little more just beyond his reach. In another, far-off realm, war is building. The Aesir, led by the insufferable Odin, are on the brink of declaring an all-out offensive against the Dark Elves. Rumil Darklighter, daughter of one of the most powerful elves, sets out to stop the Aesir and save her home.

The year is 878, and the Saxons of Wessex, under King Alfred, have defeated the Danes to keep their kingdom free. Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, helped Alfred win that victory, but now he is disgusted by Alfred's lack of generosity. Uhtred flees Wessex, going north to search for his stepsister in the formidable stronghold of Dunholm.

This epic adventure will take you back to the Old West - 1830 in the Rocky Mountains. Packed with Northwest-wilderness period detail, it's the story of Josiah Paddock and Titus "Scratch" Bass. Paddock is a young man coming of age while running from the law, and Bass is a grizzled old mountain man who befriends Paddock and teaches him how to survive in this rugged country. Read by actor Ken Howard, star of TV's The White Shadow, this historical novel is rich and unforgettable.