Jonah Hook was a man who had lost everything a man could lose--but the iron will to reclaim what had been taken from him. Now he must confront the fiery religious heretic who has enslaved his wife and the fierce Comanche tribe who has raised his long-lost sons. From Fort Laramie, land of Sioux and Cheyenne, to the empire of the Mormons in the shadow of tall mountains, and on to the Texas panhandle, where he will join the ranks of the Texas Rangers, the journey ahead will test Jonah's courage, cunning, and endurance to the limit. On this bloody trail of rescue and revenge, nothing will stop him save success . . . or death.
Praise for the novels of Terry C. Johnston
“This novel has the epic sweep of the frontier built into it.”
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“Will stain the reader with grease, blood, and smoke.”
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THE SON OF THE PLAINS TRILOGY
“Terry Johnston is the genuine article when it comes to storytelling, but you can also depend on his having done his historical homework. His Custer trilogy is proving this significant point, just as his Indian wars and mountain man books prove it. I admire his power and invention as a writer, but I admire his love and faith in history just as much.”
—Will Henry, author of
“[Johnston] has so immersed himself in the history of the Plains Indians and in Custer’s history that, were novels not his forte, he could very well write a book on Custer and his final battle to match that of … Evan Connell.”
—Dale L. Walker,
“Johnston’s books are action-packed … a remarkably fine blend of arduous historical research and proficient use of language … lively, lusty, fascinating.”
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“Rich and fascinating … There is a genuine flavor of the period and of the men who made it what it was.”
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“Slick with survival-and-gore heroics and thick with Northwest-wilderness period detail (1820-40), this gutsy adventure-entertainment is also larded with just the right amounts of frontier sentiment.”
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“Johnston offers memorable characters, a great deal of history and lore about the Indians and pioneers of the period, and a deep insight into human nature, Indian or white.”
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BOOKS BY TERRY C. JOHNSTON
SONS OF THE PLAINS NOVELS
THE PLAINSMEN NOVELS
How solemn and beautiful is the thought that the earliest pioneer of civilization, the van-leader of civilization, is never the steamboat, never the railroad, never the newspaper, never the Sabbath-school, never the missionary—but always whiskey! … Westward the Jug of Empire takes its way!
—Mark Twain
The Texas Rangers … had an off and on existence ever since 1823, when Stephen F. Austin formed a band of ten Rangers to protect the first American settlements from Indians…. From that time on—throughout all their ups and downs, disappearances and reappearances—the Rangers were irregulars. They were irregular as hell, in everything except getting the job done.
—Oliver Knight
The more Indians we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed the next war.
—General William Tecumseh Sherman
Destiny is nothing more than the unforeseen coincidence of events, the emergence into action of hidden forces which, in a complex and disordered society … no contemporary can be expected to discern.
—Guglielmo Ferrero
CAST OF CHARACTERS
*Jonah Hook
*Hattie Hook
*Ezekiel Hook (Antelope)
*Prairie Night (Antelope’s Comanche wife)
*Gritta Hook
*Jeremiah Hook (Tall One)
*Shadrach Sweete
*Pipe Woman
*Toote Sweete / Shell Woman
*High-Backed Bull
*Colonel Jubilee Usher
*Heber Welch
*Frank Bolls
*Charlie Smythe
*Joseph Simes
*Oran Strickler
*George
*Orem Slade
*George Hines
*Harry Hampton
Roman Nose
*Hair Rope
Little Hawk
Tall Bull
*Wolf Friend
*Plenty of Bull Meat
*Tall Sioux
*Bullet Proof
*Red Cherries
*Four Bulls Moon
Porcupine
*Wrinkled Wolf
Starving Elk
White Horse
*Bad Heart
*Yellow Nose
*White Man’s Ladder
*Feathered Bear
*Heavy Furred Wolf
Pawnee Killer
* Bad Tongue
Quanah Parker
*Wolf Walking Alone
*Snake Brother
*Coal Bear
*Bums Red
*Standing
*Rain Woman
*Bridge
*Big Mule
*Dives Backward
*Old Owl Man
*Tortoise Shell
