Crofton's Fire

If Elmore Leonard had written Little Big Man or Kurt Vonnegut Lonesome Dove, the result might have been something like this blazingly original, acclaimed debut novel by Keith Coplin that "has roared out of the gate with all cylinders firing" (Booklist). In 1876, a green lieutenant named Crofton barely escapes Little Big Horn, after seeing Custer killed by his own enraged men-before they themselves are massacred-under a beautiful Western sky. Such ironies are not lost on Crofton, as he faces the absurdities of war. A reluctant hero in the bloody crucible of empire, Crofton will go halfway around the world-from a "whore's war" in Kansas, to a rebellion in Cuba, to a showdown with the Ku Klux Klan, to the horrors of the Zulu Wars in Africa. He will get shot, endure betrayal, be subject to the schemes of such legends as Grant and Sherman, find love-and eventually arrive at something that might be called wisdom.Coplin, Keith is the author of 'Crofton's Fire', published 2005 under ISBN 9780425200223 and ISBN 0425200221.