From Publishers Weekly
Armchair cowboys hankering for the excitement of military campaigns may enjoy this tale of the Old West, where white men are brave, red men are savages and women are better off someplace else. Other readers, however, will find their patience tried by the work's limited perspective and its facile reduction of motives to good and evil. This new addition to Johnston's ( The Stalkers ) Plainsmen series continues the story of Seamus Donegan, who is hired as a civilian scout by the U.S. Fifth Cavalry's chief of scouts--none other than "Buffalo Bill" Cody; the two promptly become fast friends. The Fifth's mission is to drive the Plains Indians toward Custer's Seventh Cavalry. Although they put in long hours tracking and withstanding attacks by the Cheyenne, Donegan and Cody occasionally have some fun: when "Wild Bill" Hickok spends some time with the Fifth, they hijack a beer shipment en route to another army outpost (an event that the author, in his introduction, assures us did take place) and whup some Mexican scouts in a fistfight, even though the three of them are pitted against 15 of those "blood-eyed greasers."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Johnston's books are action-packed!" --Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph
"Johnston offers memorable characters, a great deal of history and lore...and deep insight into human nature, Indian or white." --Booklist
"Rich and fascinating...There is a genuine flavor of the period and of the men who made it what it was." --Washington Post Book World
"Johnston's way of telling his story will capture your imagination!" --Guns & Ammo
"Gutsy adventure-entertainment...larded with just the right amounts of frontier sentiment." --Kirkus Reviews
"Meticulously researched, a Terry Johnston hallmark...I still see the Thomas Wolfe and the genius in him." --Rocky Mountain News