Grizzly Moon by Patrick Dearen – 2024 Spur Award Finalist – Western Writers of America
Coming Summer 2024
For nineteen years, Wash Baker has been haunted by firing into the night at what he thought was a grizzly, only to kill his young son and narrowly miss a second boy, Trey. Now, in 1899, confirmed tracks of grizzly—a species of bear unknown in Texas—have been found at a Davis Mountains camp meeting attended by Wash and his daughter, Grace.
The congregants include Trey, now an adult and courting Grace, and Trey’s father, Ed Mulholland. Long ago, Mulholland’s big talk about the dangers of a grizzly led Wash to panic and fire the fatal load of buckshot. With all of them now striking out to hunt down this confirmed grizzly, Wash has a chance to right the wrongful shot and perhaps deliver judgment on Mulholland.
Meanwhile, up from Mexico has come twelve-year-old Rosindo Mesa, seeking to kill the same grizzly before the next full moon in order to free his dead father’s wandering soul.
This novel is based on the actual 1899 hunt for the only documented grizzly ever found in Texas.