The Which Way Tree

3 of 17
The Which Way Tree
288 pages
In the tradition of Charles Portis's classic True Grit, Elizabeth Crook's heart-pounding adventure, The Which Way Tree, features a tough-as-nails orphan in pursuit of frontier justice. But 12-year-old Sam, our indefatigable Texan heroine, is the daughter of a former slave, and the murderer she's hunting isn't a double-crossing man but a demonic panther that killed her mother. Joined by a loquacious Tejano outlaw, a preacher and his scruffy hound, and 14-year-old Benjamin, who does double duty as her brother and our keen-eyed narrator, Sam sets out for revenge. Of course, as in all great cat-and-mouse thrillers, while Sam hunts her quarry, she herself is being stalked—in this case by Clarence Hanlin, or the Sesesh, a highway-robbing Confederate who's had it out for her since she shot off one of his fingers. Like Hanlin, you'll follow Sam to the ends of the earth.
— Natalie Beach