Summer of the Sioux

Matt Tierney #1

by Tim Champlin

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.

Genres: Westerns

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 12, 1981

About the author

Tim Champlin was born in North Dakota. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State College and earned a Masters degree in English from Peabody College, Nashville. He writes novels of the American West.

(source: Penguin Random House)

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. 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.