Wagons West Empire Books
As the first book of the trilogy opens, it is early spring in 1811 and the Holt family is getting together for a reunion at the family homestead near Marietta, Ohio. Among the family members gathered for the joyous occasion are frontiersman Clay Holt, who has come all the way from the Rocky Mountains with his Teton Sioux wife and their young ward; and Jefferson Holt, Clay's brother, who has come from Wilmington, North Carolina with his wife and son. The festivities are interrupted, however, when Clay receives a letter signed by Merriwether Lewis informing him that he has been awarded a land grant in return for his services on the Lewis and Clark expedition several years earlier. Aware that Lewis, his former captain on the expedition to the Pacific, has recently died under mysterious circumstances, Clay finally decides to travel to Washington to investigate the matter. Upon arrival, both Clay and Jeff are approached by none other than President Thomas Jefferson, who enlists their aid in uncovering a conspiracy to illegally acquire land in the western territories. Jefferson believes that Merriwether Lewis had discovered such a scheme and was murdered for it. Soon, Clay and Jeff find themselves at the heart of a deadly quest that separates them from their families and leads them from the manors of Virginia to a fateful steamboat voyage down the Mississippi.
They are bold men and women who chase their dream from the cities of the East to the wild vastness of the West. Daring and determined, they seek their fortune in a rough-and-tumble new land, forging their destiny along with that of the great American continent. A raw young nation needs foreign commerce to survive, so Jefferson Holt stakes the future of his company on blazing trade routes to the Pacific. He sends his cousin Ned to an isolated land of great riches, while he himself journeys to Russian Alaska. Meanwhile, Clay Holt continues his undercover efforts to unmask the powerful Washington politician who is plotting against his own country. But each of the Holts soon finds himself in deadly peril: Jeff in the snows of Alaska, Ned on the rough Pacific seas, and Clay in a wilderness rent by nature’s fury. To fulfill their destiny—and to build their nation’s future—the Holts must battle for their lives, and their freedom.
The triumphant conclusion to the epic saga of an American pioneer dynasty They are men and women of bold vision and boundless courage who dared to follow their dreams across an untamed country. Against incredible odds, they would risk everything for a chance to build a glorious future, leaving their mark on a young America whose great destiny would be forever linked with their own. To the Holts, the idea of America is one worth fighting for. So when Clay Holt learns that a French diplomat once aligned with Napoleon and linked to the death of famed explorer is on western soil, he and Lieutenant John Markham go undercover to find him. To keep America whole, Clay and John will track their elusive quarry up to St. Louis and then west through the treacherous, snowy Rockies. Meanwhile, the other Holts face deadly challenges of their own: Jeff, as a prisoner of the Tlingit Indians in the frozen north; Melissa, in a new venture that sparks a violent rivalry; and Ned, caught in a life-and-death struggle on the high seas. Separated by miles and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the Holts nonetheless battle together in spirit . . . united in their hopes for a burgeoning young nation and a promise they have sworn to keep.