Frontier & Pioneer Western Fiction; US Historical Fiction;
Action/Adventure
Date Published: March 20, 2026
With all the swagger of a classic western, a legendary buffalo claims his
rightful place among the genre’s most iconic heroes.
Meet Rathuun. Born in an idyllic canyon, tragedy strikes on his first day. A
grizzly bear scatters the herd, devours his twin, and leaves him to shiver and
die. But the buffalo calf with a white spot on his chin survives.
The plains are changing fast. Wagons roll west in endless streams. Telegraph
wires stretch across the horizon. Locomotives scream down polished rails,
slicing through the earth. Extinction
seems imminent when everyone wants to kill the biggest buffalo on the prairie.
Native people shoot arrows and drive herds over cliffs. Hide hunters slaughter
millions. An obsessed buffalo assassin is determined to wipe them all out and
change the world forever. There’s an army of barking rifles, and they’re all
pointed at Rathuun.
Will the hunters take Rathuun’s head and leave his carcass to rot on the
prairie?
to unforgettable western landmarks. If you like classic westerns, thrilling
action, and high-stakes historical adventures, grab your copy by the horns.
Welcome to the prairie!
Excerpt
Rathuun heard a fierce roar that rattled between his ears.
He had just finished nursing for the first time since he was born a
thrum, hours earlier. His mother’s warm breath had tickled his flank
just moments ago.
It was a peaceful morning on the prairie, but in a flash, everything had
changed.
The thunderous roar boomed again. The entire brum was on the move.
In his haste to lead his followers away from danger, Drumm sounded the
alarm and leapt forward. The old bull crashed into Rathuun, sending the thrum
sprawling.
Rathuun’s legs wobbled as he tried to stand. It was a miracle that
the collision hadn’t broken him. There was an instinctive pull to follow
the brum, and it was centered beneath his chin, between his front legs.
He blinked rapidly, whipping his head from side to side, searching for
his mother. Moments ago, she had been beside him. “Hathah!” he
bleated, searching for the young cow who was his whole world.
But he knew she was gone. Gone with all the others. Why had she left him
behind?
He shivered at the realization that he was all alone. His heart throbbed
against his ribs. It was a struggle to make sense of what had happened.
Everything turned upside down and sideways. The panicked brum quickly
vanished as the plains swallowed the pounding hooves and flashing tails,
leaving nothing but a faint echo of their distant bellows.
It was eerily silent in the wake of the wild scatter of the
buffalos’ frenzied exodus. Rathuun took a tentative step forward, not
knowing what to do or which way to go.
Dust choked the air. His third, translucent eyelid swept sideways across
his eye, clearing away the grit kicked up by the fleeing brum. He stood, dazed
and completely alone.
Or so he thought. The silence quickly gave way to horrible sounds.
Rathuun turned his head. Twenty feet away, something moved. A dark,
hulking monster hunched over something. Rathuun’s blood pounded with
fear. There was a heavy thump in his chest. Then he saw the creature.
It was a rumbler.
wilds of western Vermont—about as far west as you can get without
slipping into New York.
Though he’s never wrangled beeves to market, Dave was a top hand on his
grandfather’s dude ranch in the Adirondack Mountains… before he
turned ten. He’s lived most of his life on dirt roads. Whenever he gets
the chance, he travels west to recharge his spirit on the windswept prairies.
He’s an Adirondack 46’er which means that he’s hiked to the
top of every mountain in the park. In 2018, Dave completed the 1960s fitness
craze by hiking 50 miles in one day. That’s one heck of a long walk, but
not nearly as grueling as the iconic trails that he chases in his fiction.
Even after all these years, Dave still has his head in the clouds like Ken
from MY FRIEND FLICKA, and a quiet, self-reliant spirit like Sam from THE
TRUMPET OF THE SWAN. That blend of wonder, heart, and spirit runs through the
characters he portrays. His editor states he is “exceptionally good at
creating real moments between characters”—and readers seem to
agree.
Dave’s breakthrough series, Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail won
Chanticleer’s Grand Prize for Book Series. He’s now the author of
nearly twenty novels and counting, and as long as there’s coffee in the
kitchen, Dave will be plotting one adventurous story after another.
Contact Links
https://mybook.to/RathuunKingofPrairie
