Several Golden Spur Awards for Best Western Historical Novel, as well as the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contribution and Achievement in Western American Lettres, have come Jones's way for his 15 historicals (The Treaty of Medicine Lodge, etc.). Now the author scores again, with an epic family saga of life on America's frontier from 1772 to 1827. Though naïve and inexperienced, young Scot immigrant Robert Chesney quickly adapts to the hardships, dangers and challenges of frontier life, becoming a skilled woodsman and scout. He settles in the wilderness of western Pennsylvania, but the American Revolution soon pulls him east to fight the British, first on the disastrous expedition to capture Quebec and later at the stunning American victory at Saratoga. Marrying Nalambigi, a Narraganset-Abanaki Indian, Chesney moves with his new family to the Ohio Valley, though more than once he is called away to fight Indians or the British. Meanwhile, strong-willed Nalambigi raises four children and builds a prosperous business empire in the white man's world. Informed by the tides of history, peopled by a vivid cast of real (Benedict Arnold; Aaron Burr) and imagined characters, this is a rousing adventure yarn, told with power and grace. Film, dramatic, first serial, translation rights: Wieser and Wieser. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved