Noble's Way (An Evans Novel of the West)
At the end of 1864, Noble McCurtain moves from Arkansas to the Kansas prairie with Fleta Corey and her son to establish a trading post. Business blossoms with the various Indian tribes and settlers going West after the Civil War. The only memorable character is a freed slave, Sudan Wilson, who, along with a tiny band of Osage Indians, befriends McCurtain. Richards might have developed a far more interesting story with Sudan as the central character--his relationship with a captive Comanche woman whom he rescues from some Wichitas is especially interesting--but his potential is as underdeveloped as everything else in this dreary novel. The author resolves the thin plot almost as an afterthought with a final showdown between McCurtain and a white renegade. Not recommended.- Robert Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa CityCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.