The Sergeant's Lady
Miles Hood Swarthout
2003 Hardcover Edition

Signed by the Author

From our Purveyor of Books:
We had such fun, once again, running the Buckaroo Book Shop for our city's Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival. We most enjoy working side-by-side with the authors and the Festival goers, introducing participants to each other, and finally meeting those we've only been e-mailing and speaking to by phone.

Miles Hood Swarthout is one of this year's authors I was eager to meet one-on-one. An award winner writer of great talent his western fiction title, The Sergeant's Lady, was honored with the prestigious 2004 Spur Award for Best First Novel. OutWest hosted Mr. Swarthout on Friday, April 23, when he presented a program on The Shootist to a sold-out crowd. Then, he joined us at the Buckaroo Book Shop on Saturday morning.

Meeting and working with Miles Swarthout was all I hoped for and more. His film lecture was fascinating and well received. The audience hung on his every word and many spoke with him at length afterwards. If you've seen The Shootist but have not read the book, you are missing out on the whole story. Miles pointed out all the differences, and many purchased the book to get the true story as Glendon Swarthout envisioned it.

C. Courtney Joyner came along and spoke as well about his great love for film and shared stories about directors he has known over the years. What a great program!

Here is your chance to acquire a, now out-of-print, hardcover 2003 edition of this stunning award-winning novel.

Synopsis:
Deep in the untamed Southern Arizona Territory, the United States Army embarks on a final campaign to rid the area of the remaining Apache warriors and capture and kill their famed war chief Geronimo. Legendary for their relentless battle tactics and astounding survival skills, the Apache make a fearsome enemy, able to cut down man, woman, and child in silence, and transverse undetected throughout the rocky terrain.

General Nelson A. Miles is determined to bring a swift end to the war against the Apache. He is also a seasoned Indian fighter, having defeated the Comanche, Sioux, and Cheyenne to the sound of his creed: "Always advance." On his side is Sergeant Ammon Swing and a unique, experimental communications system designed to keep the brigade alert to surrounding dangers. Caught in the middle of the Army and the Apache is Jacob Cox, a rancher trying to bring peace and a new life to his hard patch of land, and to his sister, Martha.

Martha is a woman perfectly suited to her wild new home, able to shoot down an Indian and match wits with any soldier. In the unforgiving desert and treacherous mountains of the Arizona frontier, an unexpected love grows between Martha and Sergeant Swing. The affair leads Martha, her brother, and the army towards a harrowing encounter with the Apache, where some will meet their ends with the blast of a shotgun, while others will rise to become honored heroes.