The Poacher’s Daughter is an extraordinary story of betrayal and redemption, set within an uncompromising landscape of raw brutality and unimaginable beauty. It is a novel you won’t soon forget. In 1885 young Rose Edwards is widowed by Montana vigilantes who hang her husband for an alleged theft, then burn her Yellowstone Valley cabin to the ground as a warning for her and others of her kind to … of her kind to quit the territory. Penniless and illiterate, yet fiercely independent, Rose begins a two-year odyssey to revisit the land of her childhood, a land she once traveled with her father, an itinerant robe trader among the Assiniboines and Blackfeet. But the old ways of the hunter and trapper are disappearing as Europeans flood the ranges with vast herds of cattle.
With an aging roan gelding named Albert as her closest friend, Rose becomes a reluctant hero of an indigenous population, both native and white, as she stubbornly pushes back against the invading aristocracy.
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Magnificent! Zimmer deserves all the accolades he can get for this one. Right up there with the best this great American genre has to offer.
Good read. Like the concept of a female main character in a western novel.
Not your traditional Western; instead a story about a gritty determined imperfect woman pitted against the establishment. And the background story is the transition of the Yellowstone country from small independent ranchers to large corporate ranches with foreign owners.
Great heroine! Whimsical adventure story in the Wild West
A Western with a twist to favor a woman heroine! It was not all-consuming, but, it kept my interest, and I really liked the way it ended.
Good stuff, disappointed how it ended though.
The female central character is quite different from the usual Western heroine. Tough and gritty!
A gripping story, could not put it down. Good action and suspense. Need more from this character!
Interesting perspective on the settling of Montana
Poor woman vs. the cattle barons… good story, maybe a little bit long; she never really wins, but she doesn’t quite lose either. She lives on to fight again. I liked it.
Better than expected
Solidly ok made better by the fact I am somewhat familiar with the locales.
A finely worded book of the early American West. It won the Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center. Vivid imagery, an inventive female protagonist. Loved reading sections out loud for the beauty of the words. The plot twisted and turned to the very last page. This writer reminded me of Paulette Jiles’ National Book Award finalist News of the World. One of my favorite books of this year.
Loved this story, great character building!
Excellent western from the view point of a woman striving to survive in a man’s world. During this time vigilante posses randomly hung anyone suspected of a crime, guilty or not. Rose survive by making friends and willingness to defend herself. See lost everything due to vigilante justice but kept a sense of humor and self worth. The ending is a classic! The author knows his West citing trails, mountains, and forts used by Rose in her travels. Since she is a part time outlaw she sees many of her friends hung and shot. The west back then was not an easy life for a woman.
Good old western
Enjoyed this read.
Never read a historical novel like this one, but enjoyed it to the end. While the Old West probably did have a lot of strange characters, these were developed well beyond a typical Western theme, with strong women, gold-hearted outlaws, sinister villains, unconvincing Men-of-God. Well done and fascinating history of farmers vs. ranchers and the land of the West.
One of the better ones! Strong competent women but not what you expect. I’m so glad I chose it. I love westerns. Great characters, lots of twists and turns plus a great ending!!
This book was one of those that you can hardly put down. The good thing is that it seemed to be about to end and then it would take off on another tangent and there you go again. You would get to the point that you would like it to end so you knew what happens but then you would say to yourself, stop that thought cause it was heating up again and you wanted to see what new stuff would happen. Just a damn fine western!