Thomas C Morris

Reflections in a Distant Mirror Thomas C Morris

Reflections in a Distant Mirror is a sequel to The Edge of Forever. The story begins with the continuation of the conflict between a frontier ranching family's struggle to survive on the edge of the Texas plains at the close of the Civil War and the Comanche Indians who are determined to push the intruders off their hunting grounds. This violent clash between completely alien cultures becomes personal as The Wolf, a Comanche war chief, conducts an aggressive vendetta against Tom McKlarren and Captain Raifford MacReynolds to avenge a humiliating defeat sustained at their hands.

The book also depicts the McKlarren family's struggle to get their cattle to market in the spring of 1866. Following the war, Texas ranchers, who had been unable to sell their cattle during the conflict, were "cattle rich" and "cash poor." A steer in Texas worth two dollars would fetch forty dollars at the railhead in Missouri. It is against this historical backdrop that Tom McKlarren and Raifford MacReynolds mount an epic cattle drive to Missouri. Confronted with choking dust, swollen rivers, marauding Indians, and border gangs, the long trek north becomes a life or death challenge requiring courage and old fashioned grit in order to succeed