An epic new western in the grand tradition of True Grit and Lonesome Dove. A 2022 Western Writers of America Spur Award Finalist for Best Traditional Western Novel."The best western I’ve read in a long, long time. Though a first novel, Daniels writes with the sure hand of an old-pro. His voice is authentic and riveting. I can’t recommend this one more highly!” - Peter Brandvold, author of over 70 westerns, including 11 Lou Prophet novels & 15 Sheriff Ben Stillman westerns.
Out of nowhere Comanches attack—and sixteen year-old Jane narrowly survives the slaughter of her family and the kidnapping of her baby sister. Driven by grief and fury, she rides headlong into Indian territory, seeking vengeance. But the odds are stacked against a young girl on the trail, and Jane soon realizes she must disguise herself as a boy to join forces with a tough company of cowhands on a cattle drive to Dodge City. The harrowing trek pits her against tough drovers, raging rivers, ruthless soldiers, and ends in a bloody reckoning that forces Jane to discover her surprising capacity for love, survival—and revenge.
Praise for The Comanche Kid:
"Daniels has crafted a mercilessly taut, masterfully paced, heart-pounding western that conjures such classics as Death Rides a Horse, and True Grit." Jonathan Evison, New York Times bestselling author of West of Here.
“This authentic-feeling, exciting Western has elements of True Grit mixed with Red River and The Searchers, but it succeeds on its own terms. It’s quite a ride.” - David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood
"Daniels' debut is tough, gritty and knowing, a well-written, well-wrought tale of danger and high adventure set in the American west." Mystery Scene Magazine
"The Comanche Kid is playwright/actor James Robert Daniels’ first novel, but you’d never know that by reading this magnificent, bigger-than-life tale. Making use of traditional Western elements—the vengeance quest, the coming-of-age story, the trail drive yarn, the epic clash of cavalry and Indians—Daniels’ evocative prose lifts the odyssey of sixteen-year-old Jane into something special as she searches for her younger sister, who is kidnapped in the same Comanche raid that wipes out the rest of Jane’s family. With echoes of True Grit, The Cowboy & The Cossack, and Lonesome Dove, this is a big, thrilling, tragic, and ultimately uplifting portrait of the American West." - James Reasoner, author of more than 350 westerns, including 41 Longarm novels and 20 books in the Trailsman series.
“A boisterous romp through the wild and woolly Old West as desperate, determined young Jane pounds the vengeance trail in high-dudgeon. Echoing True Grit and The Searchers, with a shot of Huckleberry Finn on top, readers will ride hard and fast as they taste the trail grit in their teeth and hear the crack of gunfire in this fresh take on familiar frontier themes.” - Matthew P. Mayo, Spur Award-winning author.
"What a thundering ride! I started this crackerjack novel over my morning coffee and finished it with my evening bourbon sundowner. In between I lived through Indian attacks, trail drive stampedes and white-knuckled my worry for a sixteen-year-old girl as she searches for her little sister kidnapped by a Comanche war chief. James Roberts Daniels has penned a superbly crafted Western novel as breathtakingly authentic and exciting as any I have ever read." - Joseph A. West, New York Times best-selling author of 20 Ralph Compton westerns, among many others.
The Comanche Kid rides again in the epic sequel JANE FURY. Now available!
James Daniels is the author of four professionally produced one-person plays, Sam Houston: Standing in His Own Blood; Edwin Booth: The Falconer’s Voice; Custer Rides; and Wyatt Earp: Last Man Standing. Jim’s path to writing began in the theatre. He has been a professional actor and director for more than forty years, having acted at such theatres as Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Cleveland Play House, Missouri Repertory Theatre (now Kansas City Repertory Theatre), the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and the Asolo Theatre of Florida (now Asolo Repertory Theatre). His production of Othello was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and his play about the Mexican-American War, So Far from God, was last presented at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Jim was director of performance for the Western Michigan University Department of Theatre for twenty-five years and retired as professor emeritus, then taught under a five year contract as a Senior Lecturer in Acting at the University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance. Jim received his MFA in acting from the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training in Sarasota, Florida. He served in the infantry in Vietnam with the Eighty-Second Airborne and in the artillery with the First Infantry Division. Jim and his wife, Patricia, lives in Austin, Texas.
James Robert Daniels is an author, playwright, and has been a professional actor and director for over forty years. He was director of performance for the Western Michigan University Department of Theatre for twenty-five years and retired as professor emeritus, then taught for five years as a senior lecturer in acting at the University of Texas at Austin. Jim and his wife, Patricia, live in Austin, Texas.
