The True Account

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2003; paperback, Mariner 2004

Synopsis

In “a quixotic recasting of the Lewis and Clark story” (Boston Magazine), Howard Frank Mosher traces the adventures of Private True Teague Kinneson as he sets out with his newphew, Ticonderoga, on an epic race to beat the famed expedition to the Pacific. Along the way True and Ti encounter Daniel Boone and his six-foot-two spinster daughter, Flame Danielle; fight and trick a renegade army out to stop Lewis’s company; invent baseball with the Nez Perce; hold a high-stakes rodeo with Sacagawea’s Shoshone relatives; and outwit True’s lifelong adversary, the Gentleman from Vermont, a.k.a. the devil himself. A riotous journey, The True Account “stands out from the rest of the crowd” (Seattle Times).

Reviews

"Fun and fanciful with much to savor, Mosher's novel demonstrates a boundless imagination and a light comic touch." - Publishers Weekly

"An erudite and absorbing tweak of the Great Exploration." - Kirkus Reviews