The Storm Testament IV

Storm Testament #4

by Lee Nelson

When the Fancher Company rides through town, Dan Storm learns that his old enemy, Dick Boggs, is traveling with them. However, at the insistence of Porter Rockwell, Storm leaves the territory to scout out a force of U.S. troops who set out from the East to unseat Brigham Young and install a new governor. When he later finds out that Boggs and the rest of the company are headed south - toward his home in American Fork - Storm sets out to protect his family from Boggs, but arrives too late. Furious, Storm joins the Gosiute chief Ike in trailing Boggs and the rest of the Fancher Company to Mountain Meadows, where an unusual sequence of events triggers one of the bloodiest massacres in the history of the American West. A beautiful blind woman, the kidnapping of two little girls, a frantic chase through the Utah wilderness, and an unanticipated romance make this one of the most intriguing historical novels of Western LDS history.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Westerns, Lds Fiction, Fiction, Lds, Young Adult

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Lee Nelson's historical novels have sold hundreds of thousands of copies since his first novel was released in 1981. Nelson has also published a score of non-fiction works including the top-selling Beyond the Veil series.
Nelson is widely respected for his historical research which includes killing a buffalo from the vack of a galloping horse with a bow and arrow.
Nelson was born in Logan, Utah, but spent most of his childhood in California. After serving an LDS mission in Germany, he earned a bachelor's degree in English and a Masters Degree in Business, both from Brigham Young University. He was a speech writer in Philadelphia and a car dealer in Montana before beginning his career as an author.
Lee lives on a small farm in central Utah. His hobbies include team roping, big game hunting, and finding and exploring ancient Indian ruins.

Reviews

[Ridge H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked how Rockwell would fight of the Indians and still have enough to fight back his enemy's. But when the United States Army comes in and try's to take the Salt Lake City. But Brigham Young was ready to burn down the whole city. And Young was ready to fight the USA Army. And how the Indians would take 10 to 30 mules which they would call raids. This book is amazing. I think every one should read it.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

My aunt gave me The Storm Testament to read, it is a pretty easy read. Really tame for a western while it did depict violence it was done a manner that the main characters were not present but aware of it.

I was sort of lost on some of the characters since the story is part of a series.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I think that my re-reading of this series will stop here. This was good, but not great. Simplistic. I would recommend this series for younger readers.

[04NashJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Storm Testament IV Year published: 1986
By: Lee Nelson pages: 278

Audience: anyone who wants to read the book

The main issue is
The MT. meow massacre

The setting of the book is
The timed and place contributes to the story because there was poor communication to other people so the Indians and the Mormons attacked the wagon train. This could somewhat happen in different setting because there are still places that have poor communication.

Main Characters,
Protagonists: Dan storm, Porter Rockwell, Ike
Antagonists: Dick Boggs, the Francher wagon train

Story summary
This story starts out with Dan storm being asked to be a spy and spy on an army that was coming to attack the Mormons with porter Rockwell and a couple of other guys. When they got to the army they picked Dan to go spy on them and talk to the one in charge while the other guys would go into the cattle and make a stamped after he was done talking to the person in charge. After they did that Dan went home because an evil guy called Dick Boggs was in the area.
When Dan got home Dick was already there and gone, luckily no one was hurt. But then after a few days a little boy came and said that Dick Boggs kill Ike’s wife and kidnapped two of Ike’s little girls. Dan got ready as soon as he could and went to get Ike an India that’s a friend of Dan. So Dan goes and gets Ike and sets off on the trail to get Dick Boggs.
There was nearly 300 Indians there surrounding the Francher group, when Ike and Dan got to the circle of wagons. They got in the circle to protect them from the Indians attacks, that the Mormons had the Indians do, because they stole a lot of resources from the Mormons. Then later that week the Francher group found out that the Mormons were part of the attacks from the Indians. So that week the Mormons made a fake truce to the franker group to help them to California but they killed the group instead. This is known by the name of the MT. meadow masseur.
THE END

Like and dislike
I like mostly all the book except for the parts where it is just informational like the start of the book.

One theme of the book
You mess with the bull you get the horns; this is because in the book the anti-Mormon’s were messing with the Mormon so they fought back.

To whom do you recommend this book and why
I would recommend this book to mostly people who are LDS because they would get the story more

Anything unique
It is mainly about LDS people

I give this book 4 star
Date posted

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review 1
English B4
Wyckhuyse

One of Lee Nelsons intriguing book "The Storm Testament IV" is part of a series of historical Fiction books. The book contains of 278 pages of pure western Utah territory excitement. The book primarily talks about a family with the name of Storm. They traveled from the great Missouri to Utah Territory with the Mormon Pioneers. When a group of Missourians come to Utah heading to California for gold, Dan Storm (main character) finds himself facing old enemies and a terrible bit of excitement. When Storm finds out about his enemy he remembers, "My old enemy was in Salt Lake City. He had lost his foot as a result of being caught in my bear trap. He had lost his eye in an attack from my dog. The last time I had seen him, he had sworn to kill me."(Nelson, pg.22-23). Dan will face flashbacks of his times in the Missouri and will find himself face to face with the man who changed his life. (Flashbacks, Setting, and Suspense-Literary element)

"Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyways."-John Wayne. Dan Storm shows an exemplary example of bravery and courage throughout the book. Dan was the type of person that didn't like to fight for no reason but, if a fight meant peace and safety for others he'd do it. Porter Rockwell told Storm, "You being just a farmer and all, they didn't want somebody along who would wet his pants at the first sign of a fight."(Nelson, pg. 17). Through the endless moments of fright and fights Dan holds together and shows his courage in front of many people and famous gun fighter Porter Rockwell. Dan shows character through courage, responsibility, integrity, and grit. (Character -Literary Element)

This book was a great read. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Historical Fiction. This book particularly talks about different historical events such as the Mountain Meadow Massacre and Johnston's Army. The book takes place during the Western Expansion and Gold Rush times. Sit down and enjoy an interesting funny book full of excitement.

[Kaleb Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the time when the Mormons got on their feet in the Salt Lake Valley many interesting things happened, that both affected non-Mormons and Mormons. Lee Nelson tells one of those things in The Storm Testament IV. The Action and Adventure in this book added a whole new path to truly understand what this Storm Testament book is about. It has Action and Adventure because Dan Storm and Ike are adventuring yet again in Utah to stop the Army and to help locals down in Cedar City stop a wagon train stealing from them. “Still, Utah Territory was at war and an invading United States Army was at the border.” This quote describes the setting in the book because it partly describes when Utah was under attack by the U.S. Army. So the setting by reading that quote was in the mid-1800s or 1857 to be exact. Lee Nelson just made another great historical fiction book in The Storm Testament IV. I rate this book five stars because it has many elements in it that I like to see in my books that I read. This is Br-4 and this book has 278 pages in it so for people that like to read short books this is a good book for them and it is great for all people that want a good book to read.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book jumped back in time and takes place before the previous one in the serious. I found this to be confusing, but I got used to it after a few chapters. One thing this series does is jump between POV and even narrators which I find distracting and pulls me out of the set up in the initial book of these being long lost journals.

Anyhow, this book continues its fast paced western adventure style, set in the backdrop of the Mormon Pioneers settling Utah. This one in particular dealt with the Johnston's Army advancing towards Utah and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. These were very troubling and dark times in United States history, and I wondered if the author would be an apologist for Mountain Meadows. His author's note indicated that he had researched the history behind the event, using the same books and documents that Mormon and non Mormon authors refer to as definitive. This book narrative only served to explain Mountain Meadows within the universe of this series, and not make excuses for it.

[Spencer Willardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book that I read about the Mountain Meadow's massacre. It was what made me want to read Juanita Brooks's version. It opened up a new understanding for, and empathy towards those who were killed, and towards those men who were in the middle of it. I have visited the monument a number of times and taken my children so that they can learn important lessons about what heated political rhetoric and a sense of danger can do to good people.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book centered around the Mountain Meadow Massacre which I didn't even know about till PBS did that special.

The author said he did as much research as he could and based his story around it. I thought he did a good job portraying what a hard thing it was to do for John Lee rather than the spin PBS tried to pull.

Good historical LDS read.

[Kalee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same complaint in that books 3 and 4 should be switched in order, but I think that Lee Nelson thought that 3 books were all that he could get away with, and then decided to go for another. I did learn a lot about the Mountain Meadow Massacre, which I don't remember from my previous times of reading this book.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this as much. It was okay. I felt like Nelson found an interesting part of history and threw his characters into it. But because of the genre, I can't trust the history that is contained within the book.

It is still a good read and written well enough to keep the story flowing and the reader interested.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a young man this book series got me started on my road of loving to read.