cover image Treaty at Fort Laramie

Treaty at Fort Laramie

John Legg. St. Martin's Press, $4.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-95128-3

With 28 novels (including The Mountain Men trilogy) under his belt, Legg's smoothly polished stories are pure adventure. His latest is enhanced by real people and events, including a treaty council involving up to 12,000 Indians. In 1848, Major Winslow Sanderson, post commander of Wyoming's Ft. Laramie, hires Henri LaPointe, protagonist par excellence, as an interpreter. The major has his worries--gold-fevered soldiers, dwindling supplies and keeping peace between wagon train folks and Indians. Legg adroitly portrays military procedure, including a court martial, and is brutally honest about the harshness of fort life. The raw energy of fight scenes lends piquancy, and skillful dialogue seems totally natural--despite the mildy distracting overuse of profanity and an incongruous reference to sumo wrestlers. Still these shortcomings fail to dull this exciting, well-paced interpretation of America's history. (July)