The Last Ride

A powerful novel of the American West narrates the story of a dying man's attempts to make peace with his daughter, their struggle to rescue his granddaughter from renegades and slave traders, and his lifelong search for inner peace.

Eidson seems to have come a cropper with this second book in a trilogy about the American frontier, which follows his widely praised debut, St. Agnes' Stand. Regurgitating a timeworn theme, the story opens in the New Mexico territory of the late 1880s, as the terminally ill Samuel Jones shows up on the doorstep of his daughter Maggie, seeking to make amends. She refuses to acknowledge him, however: 30 years earlier, Jones, a white man, had abandoned his family to live with an Apache squaw. Soon after Jones's appearance, Maggie's daughter Lily is kidnapped by the Lame One, a grotesquely deformed Apache witch. The ensuing-seemingly endless-pursuit across the desert is marked by repetitive clashes between the God-fearing Maggie and her father over his efforts to convert Maggie's younger daughter, Dot, to his pagan Indian sorcery. Numerous Indian spirits, unsurprising brushes with death and a maudlin reconciliation are but a few of the burdensome elements that ultimately swamp this hackneyed effort, which not even Eidson's impressive observations on desert ornithology can rescue.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With families belonging to both the Apache and white civilizations, septuagenarian Samuel Jones is dying and wishes to be reunited with his one remaining daughter, Maggie, who is living in New Mexico Territory. Because Maggie's life has already been touched by the violence of earlier Apache raids, she wants nothing to do with the old shaman, whose mystical beliefs run counter to her Christian faith. However, father and daughter must join forces when Maggie's daughter, Lily, is kidnapped by renegade Apaches. Often reading like a fantasy novel, this absorbing work, second in a planned trilogy, solidifies Eidson's status as a new voice of the Old West. Equal in readability to his earlier novel, the acclaimed St. Agnes' Stand (LJ 3/1/94), this is highly recommended for medium to large public libraries.
Robert Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Samuel Jones, a 76-year-old Indian warrior, is dying. As his last act, he wants to make amends with Maggie Baldwin, the daughter he deserted more than 30 years ago when he left to live with the Indians. But even in 1886, New Mexico life is dangerous. Soon after Samuel arrives at the Baldwin ranch, renegade Apaches severely wound Maggie's husband and kidnap her daughter, Lily. The locals who set out after Lily are caught in an ambush and decimated, forcing Maggie and Samuel to form an alliance to pursue and reclaim Lily. Samuel, despite his age and illness, is still a formidable warrior, but he knows his magic is dwindling rapidly. He must summon all his faith to reunite his daughter's family. Similarly, Maggie must overcome her dogmatic Christian faith and her personal bitterness to forgive and understand this man who abandoned her but is now willing to die for her. An outstanding adventure tale, this second entry in an outstanding western trilogy--St. Agnes' Stand opened the set--offers a thought-provoking take on the enduring if often cliche{‚}d notion of "family values." Arguing eloquently that love can transcend time and pain and bitterness when strengthened by acceptance and faith, Eidson's epic, like Lonesome Dove, deserves a readership well beyond the boundaries of its genre. Wes Lukowsky