In his new novel, acclaimed

writer Dee Brown spins a mys-

terious and compelling yarn. The action

begins in the rainy dusk near a dock on the

Missouri River in 1866, when a journalist

Boards a steamer heading upriver. Sam

Morrison is looking for stories for the Saint

Louis Herald--and he finds one in the sub-

ect of Charles Rawley, Civil War hero and

ndian fighter. Was he a man of courage and

principle or was he a coward?

As this tale is told--in many versions by

is many witnesses--the details of the past

- merge, including the court-martial of an

nnocent man; a forced march across a bar-

~ en plain that ends in massacre; Charles

Rawley s moment of dishonor in the battle

with Indian warriors at Killdeer Mountain;

md Rawley s last act, the deed that redeems

him.

But very soon the narratives begin to

angle, until Morrison realizes that he s lis-

ening to the pieces of a story far more

complex and contradictory than any of the