The Comanche Kid

Book excerpt: An epic new western in the grand tradition of True Grit and Lonesome DoveOut of nowhere Comanches attack-and sixteen year-old Jane narrowly survives the slaughter of her family and the kidnapping of her baby sister. Driven by grief and fury, she rides headlong into Indian territory, seeking vengeance. But the odds are stacked against a young girl on the trail, and Jane soon realizes she must disguise herself as a boy to join forces with a tough company of cowhands on a cattle drive to Dodge City. The harrowing trek pits her against tough drovers, raging rivers, ruthless soldiers, and ends in a bloody reckoning that forces Jane to discover her surprising capacity for love, survival-and revenge."The Comanche Kid is playwright/actor James Robert Daniels' first novel, but you'd never know that by reading this magnificent, bigger-than-life tale. Making use of traditional Western elements-the vengeance quest, the coming-of-age story, the trail drive yarn, the epic clash of cavalry and Indians-Daniels' evocative prose lifts the odyssey of sixteen-year-old Jane into something special as she searches for her younger sister, who is kidnapped in the same Comanche raid that wipes out the rest of Jane's family. With echoes of True Grit, The Cowboy & The Cossack, and Lonesome Dove, this is a big, thrilling, tragic, and ultimately uplifting portrait of the American West." James Reasoner, author of more than 350 westerns, many under a variety of pseudonyms, including 41 Longarm novels and 20 books in the Trailsman series.