Call Down Thunder — Kerry Newcomb; Kenneth Masters

In America, the years 1790 to 1830 were a time of westward expansion, and those violent decades produced their share of rogues and heroes. Mike Fink was a little of both: The self-proclaimed King of the Mississippi River, he was a gunfighter and keelboatman who always chose courage over comfort in his never-ending quest for adventure. Fink's mesmerizing story begins when he takes Nathan Bonable, an orphaned young homesteader, along with him for a riverboat trip that quickly becomes the journey of a lifetime. Along the way, Mike pursues an on-again, off-again relationship with Mirabelle Drennan, the one woman who may have the power to tame Mike Finkor beat him at his own game.

Whether outfoxing the Indians, besting a violent soldier or running the unpredictable river with uncanny ease, Mike Fink is intoxicated by danger and lives each day to the hilt. In a rousing mix of legend and history, with the mighty Mississippi as his most loving mistress and most hazardous adversary, Mike Fink and the colorful days of America's riverboating past thunder to life once more.