North

Set in the Yukon at the height of a new gold strike, this novel follows a seasoned trailman whose skills and ethics shape a raw boom camp. Winter mining has begun, and fortunes rise fast as fires burn in the shafts and pans flash with coarse flakes.

In a saloon lit for the camp's first Christmas, he rallies hard men and dance-hall girls to make a tree for every child, proving that a rough place can still act like a town. A piano man's last performance, a tense card match, and a test of fair play show what honor costs when gold lies underfoot.

With the valley filling and the stampede sure to come, he weighs easy wealth against the pull of untouched country. A hunch points to colder rivers and darker nights, where few have gone and none have finished the map. Harsh weather, thin ice, and long miles wait ahead-but so do new claims and a future he refuses to buy with another man's loss.