The author also wrote "The Searchers". I thought that this book was the basis for the Clint Eastwood movie with a similar title....but, no. More about the late 19th century north Texans and the Comanches. A good Western. I shouldn't say anything, but I felt a peculiar sexual quality to this story. You did too, right? ( )

Pretty good Western. Old movie is good too. ( )

The Zachary family raise cattle on a ranch in Texas. The patriarch, Old Zack, was killed while driving cattle to market leaving his family of three sons, wife and an adopted daughter to continue. Abe Kelsey, a man who appears to be deranged because he lost his son to Kiowa Indians, blames the Zacharys for failing to trade Rachel, the adopted daughter who he claims is really part Kiowa, for his son.

Abe follows the Zachary family where ever they settle turning neighbours against them with his claims about Rachel. Eventually after years of trying, he convinces the Kiowa Indians that Rachel is a sister to one of the warriors who then put pressure on the Zacharys to return Rachel so she may be taken as a squaw by another warrior.

Made into a film with same title that follows the novel's story line but with a slightly modified ending. The cast includes Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn and Audie Murphy. ( )

A story about belonging, in-group and out-group. Small world-building details about frontier life feel authentic and told with a cinematic eye. Indians treated with extreme prejudice, over the top, as is the gore. The inter-family romance is kind of creepy. Follows the "code", people who do bad things get killed later. Even through the eye (Medieval symbolism for a liar). Would like to see the John Ford film which sounds like a classic. ( )

This is a quality original Western with some slight similarities to the author's acclaimed "The Searchers". Though those of you who like their western's full of action will be disappointed in some respects, but in others it certainly does not disappoint. Well written authentic with a real feel of time and place, as a family with a long held secret try to scratch a living raising cattle in the west, living in a tiny shack half buried in the earth, and heavily fortified against Indian attack. This the scene for a claustrophobic dramatic and exciting shootout climax.
Easy and enjoyable read with a slightly racist underlying theme. ( )