From Publishers Weekly
Though characterization is not his strong suit, Parker follows his many adventure novels of the American frontier ( The Assassins ) with this interesting account of the 1856-1860 Mormon prairie treks to Utah, during which almost 3000 converts hauled and pushed handcarts from the Middle West to Salt Lake City. Leaving grinding poverty in England, Caroline Shepherd heeds the call to travel to Zion, and, in St. Joe, Mo., joins a group of converts from Scandinavia for the 1000-mile journey across the Great Plains. En route, the caravan (mostly young females) is menaced by rapacious Pawnees, by murderous thugs dispatched by the father of a convert and by a score of armed Mormons ostensibly protecting their "property" but in reality preventing the women from leaving the caravan--especially because a posse of Texans is riding north seeking wives among the group. All converge in a lethal tangle near Scott's Bluff. Beautiful, headstrong Caroline, a troubled Texas rancher and the vicious leader of the armed band are the main characters in this accurately detailed but plainly written narrative.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Like Parker's earlier novels, this one deals with villainous people/events in U.S. history. The focal point of the story is the trek on foot of 200 Mormon women from Nebraska to Utah Territory in the spring of 1859. They were harnessed to heavily loaded handcarts, their only protection a few poorly armed men. Converging on them were predators--brutal, vicious river pirates intent on rape and murder, so-called protectors from Utah, not much better, Indians seeking yellow-haired wives, and four Texans desiring good wives. This is a novel of fast, violent action, lightened by the author's loving and colorful descriptions of the land and its wild inhabitants.
- Sister Avila, Acad. of Holy Angels, MinneapolisCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
