Golden Hawk

by Will C. Knott

Signet, Sept. 1986

Number one in a great new adult series announces the cover blurb.

The prologue tells how children Jed Thompson and his younger sister, Annabelle, find themselves captives of the Comanche after the Indians kill their parents. Chapter one begins 10 years later as many braves want to take Annabelle for their wife. Trouble is both Thompson’s hate their captors and Annabelle does not make for a good wife. Her adopted father soon ties of her and sells her to some Comancheros who have a Cheyenne buyer for her.

Jed swears to escape the Comanche and go after Annabelle and free her too.

This book is a fast moving story of Jed’s bid for freedom, his struggles to blend into the white man’s world and his hunt for his sister. There’s lots of action, at times quite graphic. Being an adult western there are plenty of sexual encounters too. Knott doesn’t make Jed, known as Golden Hawk to the various Indian tribes, an all-conquering hero. Jed finds himself near death more than once and doesn’t recover in a couple of days like some western heroes.

An enjoyable book, even overlooking the big clanger dropped in the middle of the book when Jed’s family name changes from Thompson to Johnson for a while! Some good supporting characters and a Comanche with a very interesting name, I’d love to hear the story behind that one!

The book ends in such away that the reader will want to continue with book two and I’m looking forward to reading it.