The Dark Side of the Mountain

Part history and part imagined story, this novel follows Anna Margaretha Mallow across two turbulent decades. She is a German immigrant whose life is shaped by forces she cannot govern. When her husband relocates the family to the Virginia frontier as the French and Indian War begins, Anna and her five children seek refuge at a fort. The threat comes from a Native leader, War Chief Killbuck, who is leading his people on a desperate march to preserve their way of life. The fort becomes the site of a deadly attack, and Anna and her children are seized and taken toward the Ohio River Valley. There she faces losses and upheavals that test her. Her strength and determination carry her through one of the darkest chapters of early American history.