Berrybender Narratives

The beloved author of Terms of Endearment, Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry presents Sin Killer, the first installment of a major four-volume series. Set in the 1830s, Sin Killer traces the perilous voyage of the Berrybenders, a family of English aristocrats, as they make their way across the wild American continent. Listeners from all walks of life are sure to relish this masterpiece of the old West filled with a cast of unique characters.

In The Wandering Hill, Larry McMurtry continues the story of Tasmin Berrybender and her family in the unexplored Wild West of the 1830s, at that point in time when Lewis and Clark are still a living memory, and when the clash between the powerful Indian tribes of the Missouri and the encroaching white Americans is about to turn into full-blown tragedy. Amidst all this, the Berrybender family -- English, eccentric, wealthy, and fiercely out of place -- continues their journey of exploration, although beset by difficulties, tragedies, and the increasing hardships of day-to-day survival. Abandoning their luxurious steamer, which is stuck in the ice near the Knife River, they make their way overland to the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone. Tasmin is about to become a mother, living with the elusive young mountain man Jim Snow. Theirs is a great love affair, lived out in conditions of great risk. From the murder of the iced-in steamship's crew to the appearance of the Partezon, a particularly blood-thirsty Sioux warrior with a band of over two hundred, The Wandering Hill is at once literature on a grand scale and riveting entertainment by a master storyteller.

Larry McMurtry has gained international fame for his eccentric characters and vivid settings. The Wandering Hill is part of a series as colorful as the American West. An eccentric family of English sportsmen have traveled to America to hunt buffalo and other big game. As they spend the winter at a remote trading post, bizarre adventures and even stranger domestic affairs befall them.

In the final volume of The Berrybender Narratives, Tasmin and her family are under arrest in Mexican Santa Fe. Tasmin, who would once have followed her husband anywhere, is no longer even sure she likes him, or knows where to go to next. Captain Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, is puzzled by the great changes sweeping over the West, replacing red men and buffalo with towns and farms. Jim Snow, Kit Carson and one of Lord Berrybender's many illegitimate offspring make their way back to Santa Fe. But even they are unable to prevent the Mexicans from carrying the Berrybender family on a long and terrible journey across the desert to Vera Cruz. Beset by Indians and hounded by their Mexican guards, the Berrybenders endure all the horror of the Jornado del Muerto -- the legendary Dead Man's Walk. The Mexican commander of the party falls in love with Tasmin, with unhappy consequences. Starving, dying of thirst, they finally make their way to New Orleans, where Jim Snow has to choose between Tasmin and the great American plains. And after all her adventures, Tasmin must finally decide where her future lies.

This is the stunning conclusion to award-winning author Larry McMurtry's vast saga set in the 1830s American West. The Berrybenders, a family of wealthy English eccentrics, now have a growing brood of children. During the fourth year of their Western odyssey, each faces danger from Indian attacks, disease, and deprivation as they travel across the desert toward Santa Cruz.