The first in a trilogy set in the untamed colonial American wilderness, from "a keen observer of the human heart as well as a fine action writer" (Publishers Weekly).   Joshua Colter was born of the wild frontier. As a young boy living with his family on the edges of civilization during the French and Indian War, he witnessed firsthand the bloodshed and brutality men were capable of-from the deception and depredations of whites like his own vile father to the merciless vengeance of the native tribes. Forced by cruel fate to set out on his own, he was adopted by an honorable hunter who taught him to fight and survive while remaining true to his own heart.   But as much as the solitary Joshua loves living rough and free in the forests and mountains, the troubles of the civilized world are encroaching, as the once-pristine wilderness is being carved up between the all-powerful British crown, settlers searching for a land to call their own, and the native Indians who desperately defy them both to protect their ancestral home.   Now, in a burgeoning land of hope and hardship, Joshua will have to decide what he is willing to fight and die for as the birth of a new nation breaks on the horizon.