Sons of Texas
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
In 1816, Mordecai Lewis, a veteran of Andrew Jackson's Indian campaigns and battles against the British, moves his family into the western Tennessee canebrakes. But Mordecai, a born wanderer, is not satisfied with farming, and with his sons Michael and Andrew and some other backwoodsmen, he leads a foray into Spanish-held Texas to hunt wild horses and return the mustang herd to sell in Tennessee.
Crossing the Sabine River, Mordecai's party encounters a Spanish patrol determined to repel all American invaders. After a bloody skirmish leaves their father dead, Michael and Andrew find their way back to their Tennessee farm.
Five years later, after the Spanish government in Mexico City has agreed to permit 300 American families to settle in Texas, the Lewis brothers have their opportunity to re-enter Texas. They ride to the frontier town of Natchitoches, Louisiana, where Michael falls in love with Marie Villaret, daughter of a wealthy French landowner, then cross the Sabine to find Stephen F. Austin, a Missouri entrepreneur in charge of the new American colony.
But the Lewises are considered interlopers and horse thieves and are dogged by a patrol led by the same ruthless Spanish officer who killed their father five years before.
Sons of Texas is the first volume in a trilogy that follows the lives and adventures of the Lewis family through the era of the Alamo and Texas Independence under Sam Houston.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A veteran writer of more than 40 western novels, seven-time Spur Award winner Kelton again delivers careful plotting, colorful characters and vibrant action in this tale set largely in Mexican-ruled Texas. In 1816, the patriarch of the Lewis clan leaves its Tennessee farm to join a group of local adventurers who plan is to capture Texas wild horses and bring them back to sell. Lewis's 16-year-old son Michael sneaks off and joins them. When the party run into a Mexican military patrol at the Louisiana border led by the sadistic Lieutenant Rodriguez, Michael's father is murdered along with much of the party, and Michael is left to die on the prairie, but survives (with a little bit of deus ex machinaaid) and returns home. Five years later, after suffering through a bloody family feud, Michael and a younger brother, Andrew, return to Texas to settle the score and stake out new lives for themselves. Michael eventually finds love, revenge and even future Texas hero Stephen F. Austin. Lucid sentences, few surprises, heavily dialected dialogue, authentically clipped emotions, careful historicism and smooth pacing give what could be a hokey story nice nuance. The second and third installments will cover the Alamo, Sam Houston and Texas independence.