Fall 2002

With three best-selling books about bears, an elk with a strange name, and a love story under his belt - Roland Cheek, outfitter turned author is branching out into the world of fiction.

Echoes of Vengeance -- A military outpost in an isolated region of the Department of the Upper Missouri. An embittered commandant who believes unkind fate kept him from fame and glory during the recent War of Seccession. A band of starving Blackfeet too riddled with smallpox to withdraw to their reservation. A young mixed-breed army interpreter whose aging parents are with the Blackfeet tries to prevent a massacre-in-the-making; he's beaten and dragged to the guardhouse for the attempt.

Thus the stage is set

and principle characters in place for the opening pages of Echoes of Vengeance. It's a tangled tale of daring and adventure as the youth flees Echoes from his revenge. From Mississippi dock to Modesto prize ring, from Cherokee Strip to Colorado end-of-track, Jethro Spring treads the line between death and survival, merit and rascality, growth and degeneration.

That's just the first of his six novels cataloging Jethro Spring's life in a series called Valediction for Revenge. Echoes of

Vengeance and Bloody Merhants' War are in bookstores now; Lincoln County Crucible will follow in May 2003. Of the three additional books to follow, two are set in the Colorado Rockies and one in Wyoming's Stinkingwater Country.

Cheek's earlier books include Learning to Talk Bear, Chocolate Legs, The Phantom Ghost of Harriet Lou, My Best Work is Done at the Office, and Dance on the Wild Side.

Read the first chapter of any of Cheek's books on his website: www.rolandcheek.com Roland and his wife, Jane, live in Columbia Falls where he writes and she markets and they both continue to hike the backcountry.

Tony Dean Outdoors

Roland Cheek's Western Novels Great Reads

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Official newsletter of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association

When Roland Cheek rode into town and dined with us at La Minestra not long ago, it marked my first reading of a western novel, then a second, and now I'm beginning a third.

But allow me to digress.

We became friends at an outdoor writer conference in Portland, OR a few years back, sharing some very good cigars and a bottle of Southern Comfort one evening.

Well, much has transpired since.

Roland quit writing and broadcasting about the outdoors from his home base in Columbia Falls, MT, and began writing fiction.

Westerns.

Roland knows the west. After all, he spent nearly two decades as a mountain outfitter and guide and figures he's logged about 30,000 miles in the saddle.

So when he sent me his six book series, the "Valediction For Revenge" series about Jethro Spring, a young man born to an Indian mother and mountain man father, I thought I should at least read a book or two.

I did, and I'm on my third in the series, the Lincoln County Crucible.

Roland's writing is good, and he's a born storyteller.

So whether you read western novels or not, let me recommend these. It's good stuff. Tight plots, a great cast of characters and Roland's storytelling ability. It all leads to a series you can't put down.

6/4/06

(or send check or money order for $16.95 to Roland Cheek, P.O. Box 1118, Columbia Falls, MT 59912)