Five Star First Edition Westerns - Ghost Legion: A Frontier Story [Hardcover]

Johnny D. Boggs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1594141576 | ISBN-13: 978-1594141577 | Edition: 1

In this tale set during the War for Independence, two intriguing stories emerge. One is of a black freedman, Stuart Brodie. On his return from the war, he finds his brother lynched and his tavern in the backcountry of South Carolina burnt to the ground. Knowing that the guilty party was allied with the Colonial Patriots, he joins the British Army to exact his revenge. The other story is of an abused wife, Marty, who is raped by her husband and his friend and left to recover alone. While dressed in men's clothing she is mistaken for a man and promptly uses this to her advantage to join the Colonial forces. Meanwhile, the Patriots are gathering backcountry fighters for an open confrontation with the British troops under Major Patrick Ferguson. This Ghost Legion is growing steadily, and because the British do not believe the legion exists or refuse to acknowledge their strength, the end result might be a bloody conflict.

Johnny D. Boggs is a South Carolina native, who lives in New Mexico with his wife and son. His next Five Star Western will be Walk Proud, Stand Tall.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

During the Revolutionary War, regular folks often joined the fray due to circumstance. Stuart Brodie, a black freedman, joins the Loyalists after renegades affiliated with the Colonial Patriots tortured his brother to death and burned their tavern to the ground. The Brits, notably commander Patrick Ferguson, offer sympathy, a square meal, and an acceptable venue for vengeance. Martha McKidrict--born Martha Sinclair--falls in with the rebels to escape a barren life ruled by an abusive husband who deigns to share her with his friends. She disguises herself as a man and puts her rifle skill to good use with the band that would become known as the Ghost Legion, so named for its ability to strike quickly and effectively before disappearing into the hills. Brodie and McKidrict each play key roles in the Battle of Kings Mountain, a turning point in the revolution. Boggs, who writes with a finely honed sense of character and a keen eye for detail, combines historical fact with fiction to create a Revolutionary adventure from the vantage point of an average participant. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Boggs is among the best Western writers at work today. He writes with depth, flavor, and color."
-- Booklist (Booklist )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: Five Star; 1 edition (November 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594141576
• ISBN-13: 978-1594141577
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,073,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful new slant on the US War of Independence, November 22, 2007

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Star First Edition Westerns - Ghost Legion: A Frontier Story (Hardcover)

Mr Boggs would appear to specialise in taking conventional genres and giving them a new slant which often throws an unexpected light on people and events ,a light not shone by conventional history books or legend.In that wonderful book "East of the Border" he showed us Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill as fish out of water -away from their normal environment out West and taking their first tentative ,toddling steps as "actors"

Ghost Legion does a similar thing with the American War of Independence by taking as its subject the war in the South Carolina back country -a neglected area of study -at ;east in UK accounts of the Colonial Rebellion,(which I have always seen as not a foreign war in UK history terms but as a Civil war between 2 groups of Britons who just happened to be on different continents .Sorry,US Readers -its my English patriotism coming out!)Mr Boggs seems to endorse my view that this was a Civil war -every bit as much as the evnts of 1861-1865

The book has 2 main protagonists ,whose paths converge and intersect as the book nears its climax.One is a freed black loyalist ,Stuart Brodie,whose younger ,intellectually challenged brother has been hung by rebels and the family inn burnt to the ground .He joins a British force under the command of the charismatic ,straight arrow British soldier Major Patrick Ferguson ,who for all his many virtues is a disaster as a commander ,making some key errors of judgement

The other main figure is "Marty" ,a woman masquerading as a man -as her abusive husband ,to be precise .She fights and lives with the "patriots",where she falls in love with an rebel officer "Lieutenant O 'Keefe"

As the two opposing forces -the British and the "ghost legion" of rebels converge for the decisive battle so the paths of all the characters become intertwined .

This is an even handed portrait of the conflict ,unlike the sanctimonious drivel perpetrated by"Professor" Mel Gibson in that nonsensical waste of celluloid "The Patriot".There are atrocities on both sides and just as many or more good people striving to maintain some standards of decency and conduct amidst the carnage .The battle scenes are pretty graphic and the book has a inexorable forward movement that marks it out as the work of a borm communicator and storyteller

Now,if only he would give us a novel about the fate of the loyalists (Tories)and loyalist blacks after the war -that would be worth reading as well

This is a fine book and recommended to all who enjoy novels about US history and especially its early years