Slaughter

by Elmer Kelton Narrated by George Guidall

Overview

In the 1870s, buffalo hunters moved onto the High Plains of Texas. The Plains Indians watched hunters slaughter the animals that gave them shelter and clothing, food, and weapons. The battles at and near the ruins of a trading fort, Adobe Walls, became symbolic of the struggles between hunters and the Comanche.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The title of this absorbing new novel by the author of Honor at Daybreak refers to the extermination of the buffalo, which once roamed the American prairies in herds so vast that they covered miles of territory like carpets. The creature's days are numbered as the book opens, with the Civil War ended and the country again focused on Manifest Destiny. Thrown from a train in Kansas by irate victims of his prowess with cards, English gambler Nigel Smithwick is saved from death in the desert by former Confederate soldier Jeff Layne. The pair team up as buffalo hunters, and inevitably they clash with the Comanche Indians, whose traditional way of life is threatened by white hunters's mass killing. Kelton deftly handles both sides of the conflict, displaying a more-than-passing knowledge of Native American culture and eloquently capturing the post-Civil War tension between erstwhile northerners and southerners now making new lives in the West. Well written and fast-paced, this powerful, moving novel proceeds inexorably toward the extinction of the great herds and of the indigenous peoples' way of life. It will attract readers who enjoyed the epic sweep of such grand western sagas as Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and Harry Combs's Brules. ( Nov. )

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170734382
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/16/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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