Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52700 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 298 pages

Synopsis
A novel of the American West narrates the story of a dying man's attempts to make peace with his daughter, their struggle to rescue his granddaughter from renegades and slave traders, and his lifelong search for inner peace. The Last Ride is the story of Maggie Gilkeson, a young woman raising her two daughters in an isolated and lawless wilderness. When her oldest daughter is kidnapped by a psychopathic killer with mystical powers, Maggie is forced to re-unite with her long estranged father to rescue her. The killer and his brutal cult of desperados have kidnapped several other teenage girls, leaving a trail of death and horror across the desolate landscape of the American Southwest. Maggie and her father are in a race against time to catch up with the renegades and save her daughter, before they cross the Mexican border and disappear forever. The Last Ride is the story of a race against time and death, a powerful tale of rescue and reconciliation that provides a haunting insight into our instincts of kinship and need for beliefs.

Customer Reviews

Best book I've read for a very long time
I heard this reviewed on Radio 4 where it was raved about and ordered it straight away. This really is an amazing book. My copy is only two weeks old but already three people have read all 300 pages of it!

Loyalty, death, faith, love ...
This book was an amazing read. It was recommended to our bookclub but was not our usual style or subject. From the off I was there. I was filled with fear and trepidation. When it was brutal, I wanted to hide under the sheets but my stomach churned and I had to read on to see if they got through each ordeal. They may have been wounded physically, but they grew as people. Their particular brand of loyalty ran deep through their long family history which unravels as the story continues with an utterly skillful mastery of suspense and terror in keeping themselves and eachother alive until the final unveiling. The good characters had a thread of astounding strength and bravery that ran through them all - Indian, white, mexican, adults and children alike. Despite the horrors, they kept their compassion towards their fellow man and animals and relied heavily on their faith, which was tested at every turn. They would give their life for eachother. The bad were truly brutal, and you were tempted to say how appalled you were with the cruelty of the Indians but you had to remember that some of their cruelty was linked to their customs but also that the whites and mexicans were just as cruel without regard for race, creed or gender. Religion and spirituality were explored in equal measure and in such a huge expanse of territory with a strong spiritual heritage, it was easy to comprehend how the indigenous population relied on their traditions of faith in the spirits, but you marvelled at how the christians held onto to their faith in God and you understood better why they tried. Highly recommended.

An antidote to modern life
I really enjoyed this book. It was a walk back in time to a simple and brutally honest period in history.

More than that is was so refreshing to read about pure and simple values so strongly held and fought for; a real antidote to todays moral vacuum.

A story about love and loyalty set amongst the often savage American frontier, where both the white settlers and Native Indians fought desperately to cling onto the lives they held so dear. The book is brilliantly even-handed portraying the picture from both perspectives.