Summer of the Sioux

Matt Tierney Westerns, Book 1

By: Tim Champlin

Narrated by: Jeff Moon

Matt Tierney was a rather ordinary young man. His first big assignment for the Chicago Times Herald was the Big Horn and Yellowstone expeditions of General Daniel Buck. He stepped right into one of the most crucial and bitter confrontations between Whites and Indians in the the history of the Territory, and Matt Tierney learned that even an ordinary young man can be a hell of a fighter in the stress of battle.

©1981 Tim Champlin (P)2018 David N. Wilson

Absorbing

I enjoyed this historical novel about the Indian War of the late 1870s. After gold was discovered, the white prospectors were invading the Black Hills in violation of the treaty.

Champlin used an interesting twist from the standard western in that our protagonist is a newspaper reporter. His name is Matt Tierney; he is with a Chicago paper. He is originally from Ireland. Tierney is traveling with the force led by General Bush. I think Bush is the fictional character to represent Brigadier General George Crook. In May 1876 General Bush lead a force of 1051 man from Fort Fetterman. They were traveling along the Rosebud Creek in June when they were attacked. Of course, this was really the famous Battle of Rosebud.

The book is well written and researched. There is lots of action and suspense. The author appears to be building some characters for a possible series. In using an embedded reporter to tell the story of a famous battle during the Sioux War it allowed Champlin to tell the story from a variety of angles and viewpoints. This is a great historical novel. I definitely am going to look for more books by Champlin.

The book was just six and a half hours. Jeff Moon does an excellent job narrating the book. Moon is a voice-over artist who specializes in audiobook narration. This is my first experience with both the author and narrator and it was most delightful.

SUMMER OF THE SOUIX

This is a good western. I learned a lot about the Indian wars. I enjoyed the whole story. Jeff Moon does a good job narrating this book.