“An exciting, vividly-imagined reconstruction of an extraordinary moment in the history of the American West.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

Just finished Ridgeline by Michael Punke. Historical fiction, based on actual events.
This book is a story about the Red Cloud war which takes place in 1866 in Wyoming.
Military units have been sent out West along the Bozeman trail to build forts.
Fort Phil Kearney will be built in the Powder River Valley, and the native Americans are not happy about it. The soldiers are watched from the surrounding hills as they slowly build their fort, cutting down many of the trees in the area for the lumber they need. Red Clouds forces, led by Crazy Horse, would harass the woodcutters, attacking them from time to time, but not doing enough to stop the fort from being built.

Red Cloud must come up with a plan to stop and defeat the soldiers, to make them depart from the valley that they had already promised Red Cloud that it would be his land in a signed treaty. Once again, the United States was not honoring their treaty.
What happens next is an historical moment in the history of the west and the Indian wars.

The book is very accurate historically and the author, whose last book The Revenant was made into an Oscar-nominated film, does a great job portraying historical figures in a way that gets you to know how these people lived and acted in the very violent conditions that existed in that part of the country at that time.
It is good when one can read a book based on actual events and know that all the details are correct and you are getting a very accurate picture of an important time in our history.
Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by:

Richard Franco

Added 27th September 2021

More Reviews By
Richard Franco