Crows and Cards

Three warnings open this story for readers who dislike surprises: beware slivers, gamblers, and aces. In 1849, Zebulon Crabtree learns those lessons the hard way after his parents send him to St. Louis to train as a tanner. The trade is a poor fit. He is allergic to fur, and he has never been good at taking his parents' advice. Instead of settling into the work, Zeb falls in with Chilly Larpenteur, a charming con man on a riverboat who dangles a life of riches before him and then teaches him to cheat, handle a deck of cards, and run for his life.

Along the way, Zeb's ideas about who can be trusted are turned upside down. A runaway slave proves to be a steadier companion than any cook, and a blind Native American medicine man shows him that people who can see clearly are not always the ones who matter most. Zeb also finds that he cannot escape the Brotherhood, a group whose reach keeps pulling him back in.

Zeb tells the tale himself, and it is set during turbulent times along the Mississippi. The story follows a runaway apprentice through a dozen swindlers on the riverboat trail, with the muddy levee of a frontier boomtown serving as the backdrop, where each steamboat brings fresh marks and new dangers.