Frances Hunter

In 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made a triumphant return from the first American expedition to reach the Pacific coast by land. But three years later, on route to Washington to answer complaints about his governorship of the Louisiana Territory, Meriwether Lewis died from gunshot wounds. Whether he was murdered or committed suicide is a mystery to this day. Frances Hunter’s first novel, To the Ends of the Earth, attempts to throw light on that mystery.

Historians must deal with the paucity of facts in the case, but meddling novelists are bound by no such constraints. Late one night, on a trip following Lewis and Clark’s trail through Montana and Idaho, the author was struck by a desire to improve upon reality, and the idea for To the Ends of the Earth was born. The mystery needed to be solved once and for all. And who better to discover the truth about Lewis’s death than his best friend and partner in adventure, William Clark?

The novel opens in St Louis in 1809 and Meriwether Lewis has never felt less like a hero. Trapped in a thankless political job, he’s drinking too much and spending money like there’s no tomorrow. When he’s called to a mysterious meeting, Lewis hopes for a new adventure that will turn his life around. Instead, he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy to put him and William Clark at the head of a new American empire. Lewis has his faults, but he’s no traitor. As for Clark, he’s willing to risk everything to save his best friend from dishonour and disgrace. In the end, neither man can imagine the price to be paid for their loyalty to each other and to their country.

To the Ends of the Earth was the winner of the Writers' League of Texas manuscript contest. It was published by Blind Rabbit Press in September 2006.

But an even more puzzling mystery is the identity of the author, Frances Hunter. Well, you’re in for a surprise for Frances Hunter is not one person, but two – sisters Mary and Elizabeth Clare of Austin, Texas, who have put their lifelong love of storytelling to work writing historical fiction.

For their first novel, Mary and Elizabeth conducted extensive historical research and travelled the entire route of the journey described in the book, as well as the Lewis and Clark Trail from Montana to the Pacific Coast. They are presently working on Beneath Our Native Sky, the prequel to To the Ends of the Earth, and researching Bloody Island, a historical novel about Robert E. Lee.

Liz has been a technical and business writer since 1988. Currently, she writes and designs historical exhibits for the Texas State Library and Archives. Her most recent completed project is Hard Road to Texas: Texas Annexation 1836-1845. For many years, she produced The New Deal, a quarterly newsletter for political collectors. She also maintains a website devoted to Herman Wedemeyer, an outstanding football star of the 1940s and one of the stars of Hawaii Five-O. In fact, it was writing Five-O fan fiction that she credits for reviving her interest in creative writing after many years of dormancy. In her spare time, she loves to read, listen to Celtic and early American music, follow University of Texas sports, and just kick back

Mary was a small business columnist for the Austin Business Journal in the early nineties and currently writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her article ‘A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Incident on the Nueces’ was published in the May 1998 issue of Civil War Magazine. In 2000, her poem ‘austin: a love letter’ was selected as a winner in the Austin American-Statesman's Yeats of Austin poetry contest. She also serves as the webmaster for the Austin Civil War Round Table, a non-profit organization devoted to the study of the American Civil War. Her day job is as a senior systems analyst at the University of Texas, writing software for university students and staff