Savage Country

In 1873, her husband's death leaves Elizabeth Coughlin in deep debt to the dangerous and conniving Mr. Whitechurch. Her only hope of raising money is a buffalo hunt planned by her late spouse. With the grudging assistance of taciturn brother-in-law Michael, who had been a professional game hunter in Europe and Africa, she and her husband's hired men head into Native lands. No one is quite prepared for the dangers along the way—wild storms, poisonous snakes, wayward travelers, wildfires, animal bites, and Native warriors. Elizabeth, unlike many female characters in stock Westerns, begins to develop her own sense of independence and self, although Olmstead (Coal Black Horse) could have fleshed her out a bit more. Graphic descriptions of hunts and violence may turn some readers away, but the accurate account of such violent times, and in particular the hunts that decimated vast buffalo herds of the West, is necessary.