Customer Reviews

Winding Stair

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This is a story of the pursuit of a murderer in what is now eastern Oklahome just before it became a state. The pursuit is carried out jointly by a U.S. Marshall and the law officers of the Indian nation involved, probably the Cherokee.
In addition to a good story by an excellent writer of historical fiction, Douglas C. Jones, ("The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer"; "Elkhorn Tavern"), it describes the relatively unfamiliar operation of an Indian nation in the "Indian Territory" a few years before Oklahama statehood in 1907.

The Winding Stair is Jones' best book. On it's face it appears to be a western, but is in fact an excellent reconstruction of the declining days of the American West. He presents a sympathetic view of Judge Isaac Parker who has come to us in history as the notorious hanging judge. While Parker with his 21 years on the bench at Fort Smith, sentenced 160 men to die and hanged 79 of them, Jones depicts him as a man driven to do justice. The story is also of a poignant coming of age for the naive young man who gets caught up the horrific murder which is central to the novel. Jones later recycles many of the book's characters, but this book remains the best. Well worth the effort to locate and read.