Set in post Civil War Missouri, this novel tells how a devoted son and two life-long friends deal with a major disaster in their lives. They forget the old adage that "Two wrongs don't make a right", and pay dearly for it.
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Billy Ray put a finger to his hat brim as he walked toward Rebel. Then addressing Mary Lynn, he shouted, "If this fellow doesn't work out, you've always got me to fall back on." She laughed as tears came to her eyes. Moving closer to Tom, she struggled to deal with the situation. Never before had she been euphoric and heartbroken in the same breath ...where happiness and sadness held hands.
About George Banks
George Banks was the eldest of three sons born to the Banks family of rural Missouri. Born two years before the end of World War II, 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 be sitting 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 impressed with the writings of Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, J. Frank Dobie, and others. 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 things of the Old West, he has personally visited: The James Farm and Jesse James gravesite, near Kearney, Missouri; the site where William (Bloody Bill) Anderson was killed; the famous Devils Tower, near Moorcroft, Wyoming; the infamous Deadwood, South Dakota; the original Perryman Ranch in Oklahoma; the historic sites of Coffeyville, Kansas; the streets of Old Fort Worth; several hundred miles of the route Lewis and Clark explored; and The Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas, just to name a few.
He recently told a close friend that parts of The Missouri Rider would come to him in the most unlikely places: while driving to or from work, while in the shower, while doing yardwork, and even in the dead of night. Not to lose one moment of inspiration, he got in the habit of keeping a pad and pen within reach of his bed.
George also peppers his 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."
The Missouri Riders is not your typical Western, but it is an accurate representation of how people lived and survived in the latter part of the 1800's.
Set in post Civil War Missouri, this novel tells how a devoted son and two life-long friends deal with a major disaster in their lives. They forget the old adage that "Two wrongs don't make a right", and pay dearly for it.
George Banks was the eldest of three sons born to the Banks family of rural Missouri. Born two years before the end of World War II, 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 be sitting 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.