SWORD OF GENERAL ENGLUND: A Novel of Murder in the Dakota Territory, 1876
by Donald Honig
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"In 1876, at Fort Larkin, a small military outpost fifty miles from nowhere in the Dakota Territory, General Alfred Englund, alone in his office in the middle of the night, is stabbed to death. Civil War hero, eccentric, religious fanatic, and brilliant fighting soldier, he was both feared and respected by his men." "And hated, perhaps, by one." "The preliminary investigation rules out an intruder, and none of the noncoms or enlisted men had the opportunity to commit the crime. All signs show more point instead to one of the general's senior staff officers as the killer." "The military cannot condone the assassination of one of its own. This is a murder that demands attention from the highest authorities, even from President Ulysses S. Grant. Captain Thomas Maynard arrives from Washington to unmask the murderer, with orders that carry the authority of the President himself. But Maynard has secrets of his own, and his judgment may be affected by his growing fondness for the deceased general's lovely daughter." "Englund, a larger-than-life hero who, according to legend, once inflamed the passions of his men by hurling his sword up into the air, where it was struck by a blinding flash of lightning, had been brusque and arrogant; his men had followed him into battle with a fidelity that was not so much loyal and devoted as dominated and bewitched." "Now, with the help of Sergeant Billy Barrie, a man who usually says little but knows just about everything that goes on in the fort, Maynard must penetrate the myth and discover the real General Englund. His investigation leads him to seven suspects: the command's five senior officers, each of whom had a motive for killing the general; the seductive young wife of one of the officers; and a mysterious army scout who disappeared on the night of the murder and is rumored to be somewhere in the surrounding Black Hills." "Through a process of sly cat-and-mouse interrogations, Maynard begins a dogged assault on the truth. The answer, when he finds it, is not what the military wants to hear."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
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Murder in Dakota Territory
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75+ Works 1,051 Members
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- Original publication date
- 1996
- People/Characters
- Captain Thomas Maynard
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper
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