Old West Story Finds Man of Conscience on the Wrong Side of the Law

Oklahoma City, OK, August 19, 2007 --(PR.com)-- "The Missouri Riders" is a tale of desperation and redemption that could only have been played out in the Old West. The year is 1894, and John Dee and his mother receive a letter from the bank threatening foreclosure on their land. The young man knows the payments have been made but there’s no way to prove his late father’s integrity. Given forty-five days to make good on the amount due, John Dee finds himself forced to make a terrible choice, one that would leave most outlaws hanging from a tree.

Knowing that he must save his mother from ruin, John Dee enlists the help of his two closest friends to join him in a bank robbery. It all goes so easily, until the boys learn that the mayor of the town has hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to find the robbers.

“A tremendous sense of guilt and responsibility swept over him, like a giant wave in the ocean. How he had hated bringing Tom and Billy into this mess in the first place. With the sounds of the other two horses fading in the distance, his conscience spoke loud and clear, with deafening clarity: Lord, what have I done?”

The three take off across country, trying to reach Texas, where they hope to join a cattle drive to the North. Facing treacherous crossings, Indian attack, wild animals, and even the fairer sex, the young men’s journey will prove to be life-altering.

What makes "The Missouri Riders" stand out from the usual crop of Western stories is its genuine likeability. Where so much of what we read these days focuses on the worst in human nature, author George Banks has created a novel that embraces our innate goodness. The Missouri Riders is a smoothly written, engaging work that truly captures the times in which it was written.

ISBN(s): 9781432707910 Format(s): 5.5 x 8.5 Paperback SRP: US $19.95; CAN $24.95
Genre: Westerns

For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/TheMissouriRiders

George Banks was the eldest of three sons born to the Banks family of rural Missouri. He made the slow transition from storyteller to writer by listening intently to members of the older generation. Whenever they would share their stories or recollections of days gone by, he would sit there in silence, hanging onto every word. Even his high school English teacher must have seen something when he took him aside and advised him to pursue a writing career. In his early teens, he was particularly inspired by the writings of Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and J. Frank Dobie. He often tells his friends that he went all the way through high school with a good Western placed in front of his textbook.

To help satisfy his insatiable appetite for the Old West, Banks spent extensive time visiting such famous and infamous sites as: the James Farm and Jesse James’s gravesite; the place where William (Bloody Bill) Anderson was killed; Devils Tower; Deadwood; the original Perryman Ranch in Oklahoma; the historic sites of Coffeyville, Kansas; the streets of Old Fort Worth; The Alamo; and several hundred miles of the route Lewis and Clark explored.

When writing The Missouri Riders, Banks says that inspiration would come to him in the most unlikely places: while driving to and from work, while in the shower, while doing yard work, and even in the dead of night. Not to lose one moment of inspiration, he kept a pad and pen within reach of his bed. “I pepper my stories with names and information of actual events and places, in hopes that some reader out there will say, “Golly, I know exactly where he’s talking about.”

###

Outskirts Press, Inc. 10940 S. Parker Rd. – 515, Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS