North Chase

The Derby Man #7

By Gary McCarthy

Bantam Books, February 1982

He is the most cruelly dangerous opponent the Derby Man has ever challenged, Wesley Bryant, now crime lord of San Francisco. Darby smashes through the sword-wielding Chinese Tong warriors who protect Bryant’s vicious web of vice but Bryant escapes to launch his most ruthless scheme – stealing the vast wealth of Alaska for his own empire of evil. 

The Derby Man hurls himself into a desperate chase through deadly traps and across Alaska’s brutal tundra until he stands alone in the icy savagery of a wilderness blizzard in his ultimate showdown with a deadly madman.

Following on closely from the previous book in the series, Explosion at Donner Pass, Darby is horrified to discover Bryant is still alive, and this isn’t the only shock for the Derby Man for he is to meet Connor O’Grady, a young man of ambition who will bring his own set of problems for Darby, but to say any more about that will spoil the surprise of just who O’Grady is.

As before the book presents the reader with a mix of real events and people perfectly combined with fiction. The fast pace of the story never slows down as the tale becomes a frantic race against time that sees Darby pursuing his quarry by ship and dog-sledge. Even among all the violence Gary McCarthy still manages to insert moments of humour and you’ll find yourself wondering if The Derby Man and Dolly Beavers will ever find time for themselves or if they even have a future together?

The Derby Man books are certainly worth taking the time to search out in those used book stores as they are now long out of print as paperbacks but if you don’t mind reading ebooks then they are now available in this form and can also be found as audio books. Whatever your preferred method then this series is one that should appeal to all fans of the western genre.