Bill Gallaher – författare

In the spring of 1884, Jack, an adventurous young man, packs his bags in Victoria, BC, and heads for the prairies, looking for a new life and hoping to get involved in an Indian war. Instead, he lucks into an exciting job in the fur trade and meets and befriends many of the great chiefs of the Cree nation, such as Poundmaker and Big Bear, and ends up between a bullet and a target when the North-West Rebellion erupts. After witnessing the historic Frog Lake Massacre and the murder of his friends, Jack is captured by the Cree warriors and, later, guides the famous Inspector Sam Steele on the hunt for Cree Chief Big Bear. The Frog Lake Massacre is the first book in a trilogy about a young man who is trying to forge an independent life for himself in the huge and newly established country of Canada. Along the way, he discovers that bravery and loyalty bring their own rewards.

It was 1862 and the Cariboo Gold Rush was in full swing. Sophia Cameron, the Beauty of Barkerville, lay dying of typhoid when her husband, John Cariboo Cameron, made one last promise to his fading young wife. The Promise is a compelling story of a great love and an epic struggle to honour a dying wife's final request: to take her body home to eastern Canada. Told in the voice of Robert Stevenson, Cameron's friend and mining partner, the story travels with the two men as they leave the frozen goldfields of BC and carry Sophia's body by sled, ship and rail to a tree-shaded cemetery near Cornwall, Ontario. However, she was buried amid mistrust and dark suspicions because Cameron refused to open the coffin-did it truly contain his lovely, young wife? In this his first novel, Bill Gallaher provides unique insight into a famous legend of the gold rush. Intrigued by the level of commitment and loyalty in the Cariboo Cameron saga, Bill Gallaher first wrote a song about the Camerons and as a result of further extensive research, wrote The Promise. He is now an author of several well-received books, The Journey: The Overlanders' Quest for Gold; A Man Called Moses: The Curious Life of Wellington Delaney Moses; Deadly Innocent; and The Frog Lake Massacre. Bill lives with his family in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.

Bill Gallaher's bestselling novel The Journey follows a group of three adventurous Overlanders--two young men and one remarkable woman--as they travel west in 1862, from the Manitoba prairies to the goldfields of the Cariboo. With his gift for storytelling, Gallaher brings this intriguing era to the page as he vividly recounts the overland trek of the spirited Catherine Schubert, who made the trip in an undetected state of pregnancy; James Sellar, a combative young man of rigid determination; and Thomas McMicking, the visionary captain of the often unruly company. Reprinted with an appealing new look, this popular novel is an engaging and moving tribute to a band of heroic pioneers.

A follow-up to The Frog Lake Massacre, The Luck of the Horseman is a cleverly written ride from the days of the Wild West. The story begins ten years after the Frog Lake massacre. Jack Strong is doing a poor job of dealing with a devastating personal tragedy. He reconnects with Sam Steele, an old acquaintance and police officer, to assist in a hunt for a man wanted for murder. During the hunt, Jack meets a roaming cowboy named Jim Spencer. Soon Jack and Jim find themselves risking a challenging cattle drive over the Chilkat Pass to Dawson City, where the Klondike gold rush is in full swing. The Luck of the Horseman is a tale of friendship, and war, and of love lost and love found. It is the second part of a three-part story that chronicles the life of Jack Strong, from the Frog Lake massacre of 1885 and subsequent hunt for the Cree chief Big Bear, through the Anglo-Boer War, to the First World War and the Boxcar Rebellion of 1935.