The Last Real Place

Award-winning writer of Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey, winner of the 2020 Will Rogers Medallion Award, a 2019 Spur Award Finalist and an “Editor’s Choice” by The Historical Novel Society


Stoney St. Ney’s love interest, Abby, comes face to face with trauma in her North Carolina high school, when two students go on a shooting rampage in the library. Concerned about her safety, Stoney leaves Camp Itawa in the off-season to offer moral and physical support to Abby, but the local sheriff does not welcome Stoney’s presence.


When the teenaged runaways avoid capture by law enforcement and disappear into the nearby Smoky Mountain National Park, Stoney and his Cherokee friend and mentor, Bobby Whitehorse, know that it is they who have the best chance of tracking down the two young outlaws. 


Praise for Mark Warren


“Woven with clarity and colorful prose, Warren leads readers on an odyssey . . .” —True West Magazine on Promised Land 


“A good book offers the ultimate escape . . . armchair travel to those wild places of the imagination. Warren’s book took me to places I had previously not expected to visit, but I’m really glad I went there. —New Zealand Booklovers on Promised Land 


"Warren's novel paints a vivid picture . . . and its colorful similes will put a smile on any genre-fiction lover's face." —Booklist on Born to the Badge