Black Knights of the Hudson Book II: Boots and Saddles

By: Beverly C. Gray

Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley

Black Knights of the Hudson is a series of books about a fictional U.S. Army family from 1860 through World War II. The audiobooks should appeal to listeners who enjoy historical fiction, family sagas, and military fiction. Book II: Boots and Saddles (1868 to 1883) is the second installment in the story of the MacKendrick Army family, who live by West Point's motto of “Duty, Honor, Country”.

With the Civil War over, James seeks a return to the cheerful fatalism of the professional soldier, and is even willing to serve in the hated Cavalry. Timothy, cooling his heels in a Staff position, has his hands full with his willful wife who has yet to learn that a good Army wife does not hesitate to follow her husband - even to dismal outposts in the Western territories. She pays a heavy price for her obstinacy and independence in the glittering social whirl of post-Civil War New York.

Gwyneth O'Donnell, a young Army brat at an Arizona post, has learned the role of a true Army wife at her mother's knee and is prepared to throw herself into a passionate love for a professional soldier in a way that Timothy's wife cannot match. In Arizona and the turmoil of the Plains, James and Timothy face Apache, Cheyenne, and Sioux in the great Indian wars of the post-Civil War era as they come to terms with a military policy that in one breath wants to protect Indian treaty lands and, in the next, seeks to conquer them in the name of Manifest Destiny.

©2012 Beverly C. Gray (P)2012 Beverly C. Gray