A River Away
Marilyn Dungan
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 Arcane Books
ISBN: 096664784X

Captain Valentine Dalton accompanies George Rogers Clark on an expedition that will change the Revolutionary War.

Corroborated by vintage photographs, 224 year-old letters, court records, newspaper reports & the like, Marilyn Duncan has recreated a muscular & engaging retelling of what life was like for the fighters on the frontiers of our settlements, forts & ports.

Unlike dry, homogenized classroom texts A River Away takes you into the forests, farmlands, blockades & towns of our early years, when we were still English colonialists with freedom on our minds. Here we are at war with just about everyone: the Indians, the British & the French.

Citizen soldiers leave family & businesses to march to skirmishes that more often than not end in massacres & flight. Here you fought with hatred in your heart, with any weapon imaginable, & who you fought with was all there was: no back-up troops, no cavalry to the rescue.

Come back to a time, from 1773-1807, when we follow the fortunes of Valentine Thomas Dalton (progenitor of the notorious Dalton Gang) from the massacre of Samuel & his family by Indians near the Cumberland Gap, through the Revolutionary War & on into the new century.

Before you pick up A River Away put away your newly acquired political correctness for it has no place here among the shades of our Forefathers & Foremothers. Yes, they strove for freedom from tyranny & oppression, however, they also felt quite righteous in eradicating the “savages” who populated the land. This our ancestors did with unwavering hatred. As with all wars, the hell was enhanced by marching through vicious weather, frequent famines & the ever-stalking enemy. It was hand-to-hand blood-letting until the last men were left standing. No time for tidy burials when rivers ran strong, food & fire often ran out, powder & flints ran wet, & even your own men ran away, if you didn't shoot them first.

Telling the stories around the artifacts Marilyn Dungan unearthed, she breathes life back into a thrilling, frontier era. I do hope she acquires an audiobook version of A River Away, because it will translate to the spoken word excellently.

Well done! A lusty read, with some luscious romance, & a passel of early American war stories.

More from Marilyn Dungan:
Snakebird
The Tape
Field of Stones
Accidental Intent
(06/27/04)

Rebecca