Frank Carlson Library

During the gold rush, a young Chinese concubine arrived by horse in Idaho gold country, where a white gambler soon won her in a poker game. She became Polly Bemis, the winner's legal, beloved wife. Polly emerged into public view only in 1923, a tiny old woman on horseback, her identity and story known only to a few old-timers.

Set in 1884, nineteen-year-old Inez travels to Egypt after the sudden death of her parents to uncover the truth about their deaths, and as she attempts to unravel the mysteries her parents sought, she becomes a pawn in a larger game that threatens to kill her. Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that's been...

"When Cecile Tremblay lost everyone and everything in the French Revolution, she never imagined that she'd earn her living as a markswoman in a London circus. But Farnham's Fantastical Female Fayre has become her home, her family, and her future. Another thing Cecile never imagined was becoming entangled with the man gossip columns call The Darling of the Ton. But mere weeks after her rejection of his insulting carte blanche--and his infuriating engagement...

Frank McLynn has penned a year-by-year account of the pioneering efforts to conquer and settle the American West. Wagons West is a stirring history of the years from 1840 to 1849 - between the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the gold rush. In all the sagas of human migration, few can top the drama of the journey by Midwestern farmers to Oregon and California. Although they used mountain men as guides, they went almost literally into the...

Shunned from "polite" society, Lila Marleigh, the eldest daughter of an English earl and his Indian mistress, becomes hostess of an exclusive gaming club where she meets and convinces Ivor Tristam to help her solve a violent crime, igniting a passion that shakes them both to the core.

"When a railroad baron falls for a uniform girl at a gambling parlor thirty years his junior, he moves her to New York posing as a well-heeled Southern widow where her shrewd investing instincts build her a fortune"--

"From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls. Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have:...

Ann dreams of a marriage proposal from her poetic suitor, Eli-until Will Hanby shows her that nobility is more than fine words. On a small farm in 19th-century Ohio, young Ann Miller is pursued by the gallant Eli Bowen, son of a prominent family. Eli is the suitor of Ann's dreams. Like her, he enjoys poetry and beautiful things and soon, he will move to the city to become a doctor. Ann travels to Pittsburgh, accompanying her father on business. There...

"Tom Candy Ponting was no ordinary trail boss. He didn't smoke, chew, cuss, or even carry a gun. Unlike his competitors, he learned how to herd cows on a farm back in England - and how to handle cowboys in bareknuckle prizefights. But his skills and know-how were really put to the test when he accepted a bet he might live to regret: lead a cattle drive from Texas to New York City. Not one to back down on a dare, Ponting assembles the motliest crew...

In the years following the Civil War, Mariah Reddick, former slave to Carrie McGavock the "Widow of the South," has quietly built a new life for herself as a midwife to the women of Franklin, Tennessee. But changes are sweeping through the South, the town, and for Mariah. When her grown son Theopolis decides to speak at a political rally in town, a riot breaks out and he is murdered as he approaches the podium. Mariah must confront her own difficult...