New Release — DAKOTA TRAILS by Robert D. McKee

 

When beautiful Katie Burke offers money to anyone who can best Neil Bancroft in a fight, he’s not sure he’s hearing right. Neil has never laid eyes on the mystery woman – so why does she want to see him beaten black and blue?

 When Katie offers him a job—help her find her husband’s cached gold—his curiosity is piqued even further, and he has no choice but to follow her into the wilds of the Dakota Territory.

 As they face murderous outlaws, Indians, and come dangerously close to trading their lives for the treasure, Neil realizes Katie has entranced him. He’s falling in love with her, and yet, he doesn’t know who she really is. Her nebulous past is not what she’s led him to believe it is…so how can he trust her? Yet, after all they’ve been through, how can he not?

 In a wonderful tale of western mystery laced with edgy suspense and human longing, Neil and Katie discover that the gold may not be as important to them as the hope of a beguiling future together—if they can only survive the deadly danger of the DAKOTA TRAILS…

"Robert D. McKee weaves a thrilling Western that keeps the reader guessing, and the pace drives readers through to the end before they know it. I’m not personally partial to the Western genre, but I could not put this book down. Neil and Katie are dynamic and fun characters, and along the way the people they encounter truly bring the Wild West alive in a historically accurate way. Dakota Trails is a wonderful blend of Western, mystery, and romance."  — Historical Novel Society

 “Gold is where you find it. With his debut Dakota Trails Robert McKee has not only spun gold into a delightful tale, but beguiles us with his talent as an author. McKee's history is immaculately researched—from the land, the people and places, McKee knows his business."  —W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors of People of the Songtrail

EXCERPT

Neil was halfway into his first beer when the woman from the corrals stepped through the saloon's open doorway. As she crossed to the bar, Neil noticed she eyed him at the table where he sat.

"Excuse me, sir," she said to Dick, the bartender. "Could I trouble you for a glass of water?"

"Why—why, sure, ma'am." Dick's awkward behavior made it obvious that except for the local whores, he was unaccustomed to a woman coming into his saloon. He reached beneath the counter, came up with a pitcher of water, and filled a tumbler. She thanked him with a pretty smile and took a sip.

It was still early, and the place was not yet crowded. No more than a dozen men sat around the dimly lit barroom, all of them with their mouths agape watching the young woman drink her water.

She blotted her lips with an index finger when she was finished, and then she turned her back to the bar and looked out over the room. "Afternoon, gentlemen," she said. Everyone stiffened, but no one said a word. "My name is Kathleen Burke. Katie Burke." She patted a small pocketbook she carried. "In my purse, here, I have a Liberty Double Eagle that I will give to any man who is willing to knock that cowboy over there unconscious." She lifted her hand and aimed a finger at Neil Bancroft.