Mohawk Woman

When Singing Brook marries her lover, Sky Toucher, she sees all her dreams of happiness fulfilled. But her joy ends abruptly when Sky Toucher leaves her to enlist in the fight of the English against the French for control of the North American colonies in 1710.
Seduced by false promises, Sky Toucher is soon abandoned by those he trusts. Captured and tortured as a prisoner of war, he is forced on a grueling trek to Canada, where he faces execution for treason.
But he has two resources: the wife he left behind and his cousin Two Eagles. Alone, in a brutal wilderness filled with hostile enemy tribes, they launch a daring rescue mission. To save her husband, Singing Brook must become a warrior in both heart and soul.

Impressive knowledge of Native American culture and tradition coexists with a formulaic plot in Riefe's third installment (after The Woman Who Fell from the Sky and For Love of Two Eagles) in her series about the downfall of the Iroquois during the battle for North America between the English and the French in the early 1700s. The tale opens with the travails of a pair of young Mohawk lovers, Sky Toucher and Singing Brook, whose romance breaks the tribe's tradition of arranged marriage. Shortly after they defy that tradition and marry, Sky Toucher is enlisted by the English as a scout. When he's captured in French territory and taken to Quebec, his bride attempts a perilous mid-winter rescue mission against the advice of almost everyone in the tribe. Riefe adds nothing substantially new to the timeless tale of young lovers who defy custom to be together, and the only variation from the standard rescue yarn is the gender switch. But her ability to weave historical detail into her narrative often animates her otherwise cliched plot and characters.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the third in her Iroquois series, Riefe turns her focus to Singing Brook of the Mohawk tribe. Margaret, the heroine of Woman Who Fell from the Sky (LJ 6/15/94) and For Love of Two Eagles (Forge, 1995), is a tangential character here. Singing Brook defies all for her husband, Sky Toucher, even rescuing him from the dreaded French and their Indian allies after he is captured during Queen Anne's War in 1710. Indian history, lore, and craft vie with romance for primacy in this violent and bloody tale. The tribes' treatment at the hands of both the English and French is realistic and their reactions are credible. Riefe has done her research on the tribes and the times, but her use of difficult Mohawk words, even though they are quickly translated, slows the intensity of the action. Nevertheless, this is an exciting tale. Recommended for popular fiction collections.
Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.