Synopses & Reviews
The First Dance takes beloved mountain man Barnaby Skye's family to its third generation in North America.
Miles City, Montana. 1885. Barnaby Skye's mixed-blood son, Dirk, has just married a beautiful Metis girl, Therese. But Dirks position as a civilian translator for the U.S. army threatens to shatter their union.
Montana ranchers wrestling with livestock theft and the incursion of settlers into their range have persuaded the army to send the Metis people back to Canada. The military enlists Dirk to translate between the two sides in the brutal campaign.
Unable to reconcile her love for Dirk with the pain he is inflicting on her people, Therese flees on their wedding night. Heartbroken, Dirk rides off with the army.
Therese has a powerful vision. She is inspired to build a church that will be a gathering place for her people and a symbol of their resistance to deportation.
The suffering refugees--driven into the wilderness by Yankee soldiers and cruel ranch vigilante gangs--find a friend in Dirk and an inspiration in Therese. In their common cause, the lovers are reunited
Review
“Wheelers Westerns just keep getting better and better.”
--Publishers Weekly
“One of the best Western writers around today. He doesnt rely on epic battles or gunfights to tell his stories, relying instead on fascinating characters, vivid imagery, subtle action, and carefully drawn historical detail.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Wheeler is a writers writer, whose prose has the authority of hand-set type but sparkles like horseshoes on flint rock.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“No one writes Montana better than Richard S. Wheeler.”
--Roundup Magazine
“[Wheeler] instills the story with his usual vividly drawn characters and crisply written action scenes. Another winner from a genre stalwart.”
--Booklist on The Owl Hunt
“Wheeler has done for the Western what C.S. Forester did for the sea story. Skye is the Horatio Hornblower of the Rockies!”
--Rocky Mountain News on The Far Tribes
Review
“A multilayered story of the eternal struggle between faith and violence, racial discrimination and equality, rejection and acceptance…a novel with soul.”
—Billings Gazette
“Richard S. Wheeler shows how smooth prose and careful historical accuracy, combined with his deep understanding of the land where he lives, produces a superior novel.”
—True West
“Wheeler is a writers writer, whose prose has the authority of hand-set type but sparkles like horseshoes on flint rock.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Miles City, Montana, 1885. Barnaby Skyes mixed-blood son, Dirk, has just married a beautiful Métis girl, Therese, but his position as a civilian translator for the U.S. Army threatens to shatter their union. When Dirk is forced to serve in the brutal campaign between Montanas disgruntled cattle ranchers and the native Métis people, a distraught Therese flees—on their wedding night.
Though they have been torn apart, Therese and Dirk share a powerful bond and a common cause: the desire to help the displaced Métis find a home. Their love pulls them toward reconciliation and new hope for Thereses people.
About the Author
RICHARD S. WHEELER is the author of more than fifty novels of the American West. He holds five Spur Awards and the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to the literature of the West. He lives in Livingston, Montana, near Yellowstone Park, and is married to Sue Hart, an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.