Reviewed by Anne Boling for Readers' Favorite

The setting is 1875. A group of families gather to travel west from St. Louis to Colorado. The trip was not easy. They managed to travel about thirty miles a day. Eventually, they came to a spot where they could homestead; it was on the border of Colorado and Utah. The nine families built cabins and began to carve out a place for themselves in the untamed country. Cowboys did not want homesteaders in the area.   Attempting to make it look like Indians, the cattlemen murdered Damien Murphy and George Carter’s wives and children. The murderers continued pillaging the cabins before burning them. The homesteaders must clear the area of more than sagebrush.

My summary must stop here. I do not want to spoil this book for others. Victims of the Sage is an entertaining read. The book is 583 pages of excitement and adventure. The plot brings out emotions in the reader.  I was so attached to the characters that I found myself crying in places and cheering in others. The hardships they faced were ones we in this century can only imagine. The copy I read needed a lot of editing. Mostly quotation marks; however, I did find an inconsistency in the name Susan/Sally. Claude Stephenson is a gifted writer. This is the first of his books that I have read. It will not be the last. I predict that we will see more of his name, perhaps on the bestseller list. That is where this book belongs. I hope someone offers him a movie deal. I would be one of the first to watch it. Remember this name Claude Stephenson…you will see more of it!