FIVE STAR FIRST EDITION Women's Fiction

MacGregor's Lantern by Corinne Joy Brown
0-7862-3227-7, $25.95, Hardcover, 240 est. pages
Publication Date: July, 2001

News Release

By the close of the 19th Century, the far West had become a region of opportunity and change. Wealthy Scottish and English cattle barons vied for control of the prairies and grasslands from Texas to North Dakota.

Against this setting, two Scotsmen split their investments and expertise between properties in Colorado and Wyoming. What began as a joint venture backed by banks in Edinburgh turned into a rivalry, spurred by the dramatic success of one partner over the other. Determined to prove his superiority, the senior Scot, Sir Kerr McKennon, secures a loan from a Philadelphia bank to expand further into Colorado's booming cattle trade with his imported Highland cattle.

Margaret Dowling, the bank president's eldest daughter, unexpectedly finds herself a candidate for an impromptu marriage to Kerr McKennon. The arrangement provides the Scotsman an alliance with the family while giving Margaret a chance to escape the limitations of Philadelphia society which she abhors.

Within a short time the match proves disappointing and the new husband a distant and reserved spouse. Maggie forges a new sense of herself, nonetheless, discovering an affinity for nature and life in the wilds.

When Kerr McKennon is killed, Maggie decides to carry on in his place, committed to the idea of improving the herds in the face of an uneven market. Although urged to return home, Maggie boldly counters the wishes of both her father and her late husband's infamous partner, Hugh Redmond MacGregor, with the intent of expanding the Colorado enterprise on her own.

The ensuing conflict between Maggie and MacGregor in Cheyenne plays out before the real and recorded hostilities of the Wyoming Cattleman's Association, already a reflection of Washington politics, bent on restoring American financial power. However, Maggie is a woman of self-determination, and she emerges triumphant in a world reserved for the tough and greedy.