Sons of Fire
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE SIXTH RIDER
SONS OF FIRE
ON THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR THREE BROTHERS
FIND THEMSELVES DEADLY ENEMIES....
BROTHERS-IN-ARMS
On the eve of the Civil War the hardworking, hard-fighting Fenn family is caught in the middle of a bloody guerrilla war along the Missouri-Kansas border.
While Frank marries a pretty abolitionist and goes east to serve the Union cause, hotheaded Zachary joins the guerrilla chieftain William Quantrill and rides with such future outlaws as the Younger brothers and Frank and Jesse James. Patrick—who is unsure of his loyalties—heads for the Rockies in an attempt to escape the war, but finds there is no escape from his blood ties.
Meanwhile, their Missouri farm is burned to the ground and the rest of the family, led by their strong-willed sister, Caitlin, is left to fend for themselves in a ravaged land. Fate has taken them down different paths, but before the war comes to a close, the Fenns are destined for one last fiery reunion that will force them to choose between honor and blood.
"Personal struggles and enduring family ties form the emotional core of
[this] novel...very readable." —Publishers Weekly
"Max McCoy is one of the finest of today's new crop of western writers."
—Don Coldsmith, author of Track of the Bear
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One brother wore blue. One brother wore gray. One brother just ran away. That could serve as the synopsis of this very readable but unoriginal new novel by McCoy ( The Sixth Rider ), which uses the by now hackneyed idea of divided loyalties within families during the U.S. Civil War. In 1860, Kansas is violent and about to explode. Abolitionist Jayhawks raid farms of slaveholders in Missouri to emancipate slaves; pro-slavery gangs retaliate against those who help free the blacks. The Fenn family becomes involved in the era's murky politics and shifting allegiances when they help an injured escaped slave elude his pursuers, though they act out of humanitarian reasons rather than from any conviction against the peculiar institution. When the war begins, Frank joins the Union army and is commissioned, Zachary signs on with the infamous Confederate raider William Quantrill, and Patrick heads for the hills. Their personal struggles and enduring family ties form the emotional core of the novel, but its main interest lies in its portrait of Quantrill, a morose and mercurial figure whose motivations remain obscured in history's shadows. Other historical personages share the stage as well, as Bill Anderson, James Henry Lane and the Younger brothers play roles in this otherwise fictional telling of events in ``Bloody Kansas.''
