John Milo

John Milo Riley is put on the path of adventure, heartache and love in this historical fiction set in the American West.
The year is 1861 when President Lincoln calls for all able bodied men to enlist for war, when John Milo, at thirteen, is left alone to provide for and protect his elderly parents and two young girls, in the northern wilderness of the Rocky Mountain range.
Logical and thoughtful, John moves with intention and confidence, being capable and willing to do the job his older brothers have left him, but he is not equipped for the emotional ride of falling in love with the Irish tempered, red headed Ellen Kelly, or the heartache of searching for Ellen€s little sister, Mary after she suddenly disappears.
When his brothers return from the war they soon leave to follow their dreams, just as the Indian uprising begins. Angry at the opening of the Bozeman€s Trail and losing their land, way of life, and the animal that was only second to Mother Earth to them, Indians start raiding white settlements and homesteads. John moves his family to the safety of Fort Phil Kearney, where he is immediately hired as scout and interpreter, John is unable to stop the massacre of the eighty men that were led by Fetterman in 1866, the incident that leads to the Great Plains Indian Wars that ravaged the area for the next 10 years.
Follow John and Ellen as they return to the beloved homestead only to be forced into a gun fight that results in the death of the son of the largest Cattle Baron in the territory. Faced with the unrelenting revenge seeking Cattle Baron and his Bounty Hunters, John must make a decision. Should he take his family east to civilization; leaving the only way of life they have ever known, or move them to a town where unlawful and immoral is the rule?
Many of the events in this book are true, finding the newspaper articles and listening to the stories of my Great Aunt Kate fueled my imagination and the desire to record the story. I hope you enjoy it.