The Oregon Legacy

The Holts and their extended family of employees and friends give readers a glimpse at the good, the bad and the ugly forces driving the early West: self-determination, camaraderie, greed and racial bigotry. Set in the 1880s, the novel journeys from Oregon to Nevada depicting the travails of silver mining, a scarlet fever epidemic et al. The characters are well drawn and diverse: patriarch Toby Holt and his son Tim are plucky, self-made men of integrity; Janessa, Toby's half-Indian daughter out of wedlock, wants to become a doctor but must deal with prejudice and sexual harassment; the Holts' foreman, White Elk, bears the weight of society's judgment when he falls in love with a Chinese immigrant. Ross presents endearing players in a nicely paced family drama, the first in a projected multivolume saga that continues where the bestselling Wagons West series left off. The action is low-key yet interesting, the story line is handled with sensitivity and skill. (Nov.)