Eye of the Hawk

Seth and Isabelle Redmond leave the comforts of North Carolina to begin life anew on the frontier, joined by Brandy, the runaway slave they are harboring, and Elena Lopez, the Mexican woman who comes between them

From the opening scene of rape and massacre as Comanche warriors sweep down on the Texas horse ranch of Isabelle and Seth Redmond, Ross ( Beyond the Stars ) dishes out unremitting carnage in this tale of the frontier West. Plot and character development give way to relentless bloodshed and stereotypes as Ross explores enmity and violence in the middle decades of the 19th century: Texas Rangers exterminate Comanche winter villages and wage battle with Mexicans; Mexican soldiers fight bandits; Apaches fight Comanches; Rangers fight bandits, etc. On the verge of being tortured to death because their men are away when the Comanches attack, Isabelle and the hired woman Inez are saved when Apache warriors arrive to kill the attackers, but as a result of the rape, Isabelle bears a half-breed son whom Seth refuses to acknowledge. Seth and Isabelle lead soap-opera lives during their struggle to hold onto their land; the rift that develops between them drives Seth into the arms of Elena Maria D'Valya, the well-born wife of a dissolute Mexican general and a woman coveted by a bandit chieftain. An Alamo-like siege by the Comanches on the Redmond ranch, now called Thunder Run, brings the hefty saga full-cirle and may well leave readers exhausted.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A western soap-opera that spans 23 years and moves from the brink of one disaster to another, related by an omniscient narrator, who tends to editorialize. In 1840, the Redmonds, immigrants from North Carolina, settle west of San Antonio. Wanting to breed and sell good horses, Seth Redmond is instead pressed into service as a Ranger to battle Indians, bandits, and comancheros, later invades Mexico with the US Army, then fights for the Confederacy, all while wife Isabelle and hired hands run the ranch and fight off Indians. Marital bliss for the longtime sweethearts ends when a Comanche rape results in Isabelle's pregnancy and causes a rift that threatens the marriage. It drives Seth into the arms of the beautiful Elena, a high-society Spaniard who spends most of her time eluding the pawing hands of grubby men. In fact, she's had to flee Mexico because she's being stalked by the villainous Yoquito Estavez, who has sworn to possess her. (Of Yoquito's ilk, the narrator tells us they ``were criminal to the core and lived by the morals of hyenas''). Seth's path crosses both Elena's and Yoquito's several times, as it does that of Blood Hawk, an insane Comanche determined to massacre the Redmond family. The real villain, however, is the frontier, which reduces everyone to the level of savage, even the women who bring the only civilizing influence. Ross (Beyond the Stars, 1990) juggles too many characters here to treat any of them in depth and never instills the novel with a feel for the land that would make it first-rate. Still, it's a good read and well-written, often with the touch of a romance writer. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From 1841 to 1864, beset by Comanche and Kiowa raiding parties, rustlers, invading Mexican armies, and the Civil War, Seth and Isabelle Redmond struggle to build up a horse ranch south of San Antonio on the Texas frontier. In the mold of John Jakes's North and South ( LJ 2/15/82), the author develops a sympathetic cast of characters embroiled in the bloody conflicts among Mexicans, Indians, and the incoming white settlers. But Ross ( Beyond the Stars , S. & S., 1990) often yields to hyperbole, and his descriptions of rapid gunplay with the single-shot rifles and cap-and-ball pistols available at the time will make purists wince. Despite these flaws, he has written a good yarn likely to be in demand at public libraries.
- Robert Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.