Havelock

About the Book

Barnabas Donovan and two accomplices rob the Vulture City mine of $100,000 in gold, killing two employees. Vulture City Marshal Garet Havelock can't stop the robbery, but captures Donovan -- a man who shot him in cold blood in the waning days of the Civil War.

Havelock's posse finds the accomplices and kills one. But the recovered bullion is just gold-leafed blocks of lead. A third accomplice, Donovan's half-brother, hides the gold and takes the governor's daughter hostage, demanding the outlaw’s release.

Havelock takes Donovan into the desert to swap him for the hostage. A gunfight breaks out and Havelock kills a young Apache. Laura Donovan, Barnabas’ half sister, shoots Havelock and rides with Donovan for Eagle Eye Mountain, where brother Archibald waits.

Havelock, left for dead, follows them with the help of a Yavapai Indian friend. Pursued by Jicarilla Apaches, Havelock and his friend flee to a cave at the foot of Eagle Eye Mountain. The Donovans are there.

The Apache chief, to avenge the killing of his grandson, demands that Havelock “run against death.” Havelock agrees when the chief says the others can go free. Laura’s feelings for Havelock start to grow.

Havelock barely escapes the Apaches. A stagecoach driver finds him near death and takes him to Wickenburg.

Donovan shoots Arch to keep him silent about the gold’s location, but Arch gets a puzzling message to Havelock. Havelock tracks Donovan to Dead End, an outlaw town.

Then Havelock figures out Arch's message and leaves for Eagle Eye Mountain, where the sun at 5 p.m. will point to the gold. There, he finds Donovan and three henchmen. Donovan kills two after the gold is dug up. Havelock shoots it out with Donovan and the other, getting severely wounded.

Laura and his friends bring Havelock -- and the gold -- back to Vulture City. When Havelock comes to, Laura's there. He proposes.

About the Author

I was born in Show Low, Arizona, a town named by a card game. My great grandfather helped pioneer the town in the 1870s, raising horses and running a few hundred head of cattle above the Mogollon Rim. We always had horses and I rode before I could walk. Cowboying was a fact of life. I studied history at university but went to work for a food company when I graduated. And I spent 10 years in business before starting to write in earnest. I started at a newspaper and went on to write advertising copy and magazine articles. But frontier Arizona continued to fascinate me and I vowed to bring its sturdy pioneers to life in fiction. Their lives are still pertinent, because our values link directly to theirs. If only we had more of their indomitable spirit.