My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Much as I suspected, when I began reading this book, about the historical struggles of native North American Indians, I was about to become both outraged and intrigued by the events that would be described. Comanche is a novel about Chief White Eagle and his people who also feature in other books by Blair Howard. However, this story is both complete and compelling by itself and you do not need to have read the other books in the series. It is somehow even more upsetting when the reader discovers that it is based around the actual massacre that took place at Sand Creek.
O'Sullivan is an officer in the Federal army who is given direct orders from General Sherman to hunt down White Eagle and either bring him back or kill him. Colonel O'Sullivan has command of several hundred cavalry and artillery troops but which include two officers who resent his recent promotion and are likely to cause him serious problems. These two were present at Sand Creek and known to have revelled in the slaughter of the Indians, whether men, women or children. O'Sullivan is a man with a conscience who finds it difficult to follow the orders from Sherman. There are many varied and vivid descriptions of the territory covered by the Santa Fe Trail through Kansas, Texas and Colorado, and which are helped a little by the map included in the book. Although the author’s use of language is excellent in describing these settings the map is rather inadequate and Howard does direct the reader to a larger one on his website – but who has time to keep coming out of the novel to do that?
I have intended to read the “Western” novels by Zane Grey for many years but I’ve not quite got round to it. Having found this book both full of adventure, suspense and serious incident I think that I may well have to read more of Blair Howard’s series first. It is extremely well written with pace, believable dialogue and strong characters and a great ending. But there were a few editing issues or confusing points that spoilt the pace at times: such as different spellings of the same word, eg. Sergeant and Sarjent; Pierce and Pearce; “want” instead of went; and missing page breaks between some chapters.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.
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