During the winter of 1825 Richard Hamilton--a timid Harvard philosophy student--arrives in St. Louis on business for his father. Robbed and beaten desperate to save his life he reluctantly joins the crew of the Maria a fur traders keelboat. Bound for the beautiful wild and dangerous Indian country of the Upper Yellowstone River the native Bostonian begins the education and adventure of a lifetime. On a converging path is Packrat a Pawnee warrior who captures a beautiful young Shoshone medicine woman named Heals Like a Willow. But slaves with ties to the spirit world can--and do--fight back. As the Maria struggles deeper into the wilderness Richard and Willow are cast together: seekers of knowledge and spirit unwitting adversaries separated by time space and birthright. As inevitable as the collision of their two worlds their love begins to unfold--and with it the terrible consequences of a forbidden consummation. The Morning River is the first of The Man from Boston duology from bestselling author W. Michael Gear--a western that has become a classic tale of the dangers and possibilities of the American frontier.
