It is 1857. Under President James Buchanan, the battle lines for America’s coming conflagration are being violently drawn. As the burning questions of slavery scorches the nation, another savage war takes shape in the West. In the far-off New Mexico territory, bluecoated soldiers hurl a challenge against the implacable Mimbreno Apaches: surrender or die. And in the Indians’ ranks stands the brave called Sunny Bear – the powerful, blond-haired warrior and medicine man. Once his name was Nathanial Barrington, one of the finest officers in the United States Army. Now his visions guide him and his new tribe on daring raids against his former countrymen. Amid the smoke of battle and in desire’s fiercest blaze, he must choose between the two proud peoples who fight for his loyalty and the two impassioned women who vie for his soul. White Apache.

The year 1858 dawns bloodred in the untamed Southwest, even as in the East the country moves towards civil war. Leadership of the most warlike Apache tribe has passed to the great warrior chief Cochise, who burns to avenge the poisoning of an Indian child. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army is out to end Apache power with terror instead of treaties. NO ESCAPE As these two great fighting forces circle for the kill on a map stained by massacre and ambush, former dragoon officer Nathanial Barrington finds no escape from the clash of cultures he sought to flee. He is drawn west again to be tempted by a love as forbidden as it is irresistible – and to be torn between the military that formed him as a fighting man and the hold the Apaches have on his heart and soul… Devil Dance. The dramatic fifth novel of the authentic Apache Wars Saga that includes Desert Hawks, War Eagles, Savage Frontier and White Apache.

He killed before he could shoot, kissed before he could love, won before he could lose. He was too green to live, too lucky to die. He was a natural, born to be a legend. Outlaw Hell. Everyone tells Duane Braddock to stay out of Escondido. But a month alone in the desert, even with his keen Apache-trained survival skills, is a month too long. He’s just partial to trouble – and when he’s hired to bring order to the outlaw town, there’s plenty for the taking. Before the day is out, four bullies are dead and the cold-blooded killer responsible is just warming up for his real target – Braddock. Duane knows that the truth about his family and his past is at stake, sending him on a vengeance ride that will end in a hail of lightning quick lead.

Hell’s Choir of Killers! The quiet of the jungle is shattered by a single command. The air fills with voices of death. A Texas cattle call. An Apache war whoop. A piercing scream of bloody blue murder. And a killing chorus of zinging hot lead. A mighty green wave surges up the hill. The Rat Bastards are on the rampage, and what the enemy began, they are about to finish… The Rat Bastards.

In the tradition of Empire of the Summer Moon, a stunningly vivid historical account of the manhunt for Geronimo and the 25-year Apache struggle for their homeland. They called him Mickey Free. His kidnapping started the longest war in American history, and both sides--the Apaches and the white invaders—blamed him for it. A mixed-blood warrior who moved uneasily between the worlds of the Apaches and the American soldiers, he was never trusted by either but desperately needed by both. He was the only man Geronimo ever feared. He played a pivotal role in this long war for the desert Southwest from its beginning in 1861 until its end in 1890 with his pursuit of the renegade scout, Apache Kid. In this sprawling, monumental work, Paul Hutton unfolds over two decades of the last war for the West through the eyes of the men and women who lived it. This is Mickey Free's story, but also the story of his contemporaries: the great Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and Victorio; the soldiers Kit Carson, O. O. Howard, George Crook, and Nelson Miles; the scouts and frontiersmen Al Sieber, Tom Horn, Tom Jeffords, and Texas John Slaughter; the great White Mountain scout Alchesay and the Apache female warrior Lozen; the fierce Apache warrior Geronimo; and the Apache Kid. These lives shaped the violent history of the deserts and mountains of the Southwestern borderlands--a bleak and unforgiving world where a people would make a final, bloody stand against an American war machine bent on their destruction.

*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award* *A New York Times Notable Book* *Winner of the Texas Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award* This New York Times bestseller and stunning historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West “is nothing short of a revelation…will leave dust and blood on your jeans” (The New York Times Book Review). Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads, and the amazing story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being. Hailed by critics, S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.

"Chief Victorio of the Warm Springs Apache has recounted the turbulent life of his people between 1876 and 1886. This eyewitness account . . . recalls not only the hunger, pursuit, and strife of those years, but also the thoughts, feelings, and culture of the hunted tribe. Recommended as general reading."—Library Journal "This volume contains a great deal of interesting information."—Journal of the West "The Apache point of view [is] presented with great clarity."—Books of the Southwest "A valuable addition to the southwestern frontier shelf and long will be drawn upon and used."—Journal of Arizona History "A genuine contribution to the story of the Apache wars, and a very readable book as well."—Westerners Brand Book "Shining through every page is the unquenchable spirit that was the Apache. Inured, indeed trained, to suffering, Apaches stood strong beside Victorio, Nana, and finally Geronimo in a vain attempt to maintain those things they held more dear than life itself—freedom, homeland, dignity as human beings. A warm and vital people, the Apaches had, and have, a great deal to offer."—Arizona and the West