King of Spades

Under the veil of one of the oldest and most tragic myths known to humankind, a king is born. Magnus King, the son of a well-born English woman, continues his family’s aristocratic legacy on the frontier of the American West until the night a deadly shooting changes everything. Young Earl Ransom, a man found long ago on the Cheyenne prairie with no memory of his past or of how his destiny is linked to that of Magnus King, finds his way through a tale as old and tragic as the Greek myth of Oedipus.

Frederick Manfred (1912 94) grew up on a farm in Iowa with six brothers, attended Calvin College in Michigan, and then hitchhiked for two years across America, which provided him with rich material for his novels. He is the author of twenty-four novels, including a five-volume series, The Buckskin Man Tales, which includes Lord Grizzly, a finalist for the 1954 National Book Award, Conquering Horse, Scarlet Plume, King of Spades, and Riders of Judgment.