Thunder in the Dawn - Hardcover

Murray, Earl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031285675X ISBN 13: 9780312856755

Publisher: Forge, 1993

Synopsis

In the days leading up to the Battle of Rosebud Creek, reluctant Cavalry private Mason Hall saves the life of Ghostwind, a native American seer, and finds himself torn between her people and the people of his birth

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Events immediately preceding Custer's death at the Little Big Horn provide the backdrop for an engaging new novel by the author of Song of Wovoka . Mason Hall has signed on with General George Crook's expedition against the Sioux as a way to exit Leavenworth Prison, where he killed a guard who was plotting to assassinate the warden. Recovering from his wounds from that fracas, he is riding in the wagon for the wounded when his companion dies of exposure. The intense winter cold, in fact, makes it unlikely that Crook can fulfill his mission to secure the return of the Indians to their designated reservations. Murray nicely juxtaposes his narrative of the cavalry expedition with scenes in the opposing Native American camp, where a mysterious prophetess named Ghostwind has the ear of the famed Sioux leader Crazy Horse. Like Hall, she is an orphan, a survivor of Custer's massacre of the Cheyenne at the Washita. These two outsiders come together when Hall saves Ghostwind's life and falls in love with her, setting the stage for an inevitable conflict between duty to his country and his newfound admiration for the Indians. Matters come to a head at the battle of Rosebud Creek, just one week before the Little Big Horn. The author's informative historical afterword provides context for the developments in this solidly written and plotted tale.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The year 1876 saw the U.S. Army and the Sioux and Cheyenne move toward their tragic Battle of Rosebud Creek--the army driven by greed for glory and land, the Indians by desire for freedom and their homes. In this novel, set during that time, Private Mason Hall hates the army and all it stands for, while Ghostwind, an Indian clairvoyant, has visions that reveal to her the terrifying future. When Hall saves her life their destinies are joined, and Hall fights with the Indians, where his heart is. Murray, a prolific author of Westerns, supplies this novel with plenty of details of the rigors of army and Indian life. The battle scenes are hair-raising, but the dialog sometimes reads more like the 1990s than the 1870s, and readers may want to check out the portrayal of controversial characters like General Cook.
- Sister Avila, Acad. of the Holy Angels, Minneapolis
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forge
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 031285675X
• ISBN 13: 9780312856755
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416