The Lost Giants

Scholefield ( The Last Safari ) takes his engaging and beautiful heroine, Margaret Dow, on a a nonstop adventure in the American West in the 1860s, finding her some new hardship or complicated romance on almost every page. Though his writing style lacks grace, Scholefield makes up for it in inventiveness. When first met, Margaret is a Scottish ingenue, accompanying her overbearing father across the Rockies in his quest for local color to inspire a travel book. She makes her first dash at independence by running off with botanist and explorer George Renton, who is searching for a mythical tree of gigantic size. After an Indian ambush, Margaret becomes the concubine of chief Eagle Horse. She is saved, and then raped, by a soldier, and has his child. Additional encounters with religious fanatics, nasty speculators and a group of eccentric English aristocrats transform Margaret into an accomplished, strong-minded woman, with a wide assortment of friends and an extended family on both sides of the Atlantic. Like most heroines of English romance novels, her life is made complete when she marries a titled aristocrat. (Sept.)