Summary
When he learns that President McKinley is dying from an assassin’s bullet, Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt decides that before he can assume the Presidency, he must suppress a dangerous secret from his past, a secret that could cripple his ability to govern the United States, a secret that could tarnish his otherwise spotless reputation. Did he really cross paths with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fifteen years earlier in 1886 Montana? When Roosevelt sees Bat Masterson, the soon-to-become President enlists his help, disclosing the untold events and assigning him the task of managing the potential scandal. Will Masterson be able to pull all the threads together and keep the secret safe from the American public?
About the Author
TERRY ROW began professional life as a musician. An outstanding oboe player, he attended the Juilliard School and the California Institute of the Arts. Early in his career, he performed throughout the United States and Europe in orchestras, chamber ensembles, and as a soloist. He made a dozen recordings and toured North America during five years as a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. At the age of thirty, he chose a new direction for his life, returning to school and becoming a computer consultant and expert on relational database design, living and working in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. Now living in Santa Barbara, he remains a lifelong avocationist, pursuing independent studies in writing, literature, poetry, bookbinding, history, cinema, photography, music, travel, eclipse-chasing, astronomy, chess, numismatics, gardening, and bird watching. Untarnished Reputation is his second full-length work of fiction.
Reviews
UNTARNISHED REPUTATION is an engrossing tale written in the style of Theodore Roosevelt's adventure journal, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. Mr. Row has wedded several theories having to do with the now-infamous Hunters Hot Springs group photograph. He has spun them nicely into an intriguing fictional interpretation of how and why a soon-to-be president Roosevelt in 1901 might have sought the secret service of Bat Masterson to cover up a fifteen-year-old scandal. Butch Cassidy, Sundance and Etta, Virgil and Wyatt Earp, and other well-known lawmen and outlaws too numerous to mention figure prominently in this Old West story of honor and reputation. A rollicking good yarn follows two timelines, one told from the point of view of a young Teddy Roosevelt. Very entertaining, and certainly it's a must-read for TR fans, or for anyone who has ever seen a copy of the Hunters Hot Springs group photo!
— Jason Leaf, Hunters Hot Springs researcher and
Webmaster and Author, http://members.shaw.ca/huntershotsprings/
