Wallace Swenson Books in Order

A traumatic event prompts child psychologist Will Border to revisit the summer when he was thirteen. Set against 1950s rural America, his recollections explore the choices, friendships, and pressures that shaped his passage from boyhood into adult life.

Leaving Fort Laramie, troubled young Buell Mace joins prospector Arley Hill on a journey to Idaho's goldfields. His longing for affection collides with guilt over his mother's death, bringing dangerous inner conflicts into an already violent frontier.

In 1850s Nebraska, farmer Paul Steele and his wife struggle against hardship while teaching their children honesty and loyalty. Their eldest son Simon's friendship with the contrasting Buell is tested when the town turns against them.

Friends Buell and Simon leave home and find work at a wayside inn near Fort Laramie. In a frontier society with few restraints, Simon's determination to preserve his upbringing's moral values clashes with Buell's more pragmatic outlook.

After his wife and daughter are murdered, woodcutter Salem Greene searches for their killers, believing his son dead too. The surviving boy hides in a cave and scavenges at night while a hunter pursues him.

Haunted by a killing and a broken friendship, Simon heads into Idaho's mountains hoping to recover his sense of worth. In Slate Creek, his trust in a seemingly helpful muleskinner exposes him to another dangerous betrayal.

After seven years away, Buell Mace and Simon Steele return to Carlisle, Nebraska, where authorities want a more orderly town. Offered a badge, Buell instead investigates the drifters camped on a nearby Platte River sandbar.