Last of the Breed Book

Here is the kind of authentically detailed epic novel that has become Louis L'Amour's hallmark. It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness. Only one route lies open to Mack: the path of his ancestors, overland to the Bering Strait and across the sea to America. But in pursuit is a legendary tracker, the Yakut native Alekhin, who knows every square foot of the icy frontier--and who knows that to trap his quarry he must think like a Sioux.

From the Paperback edition.

Publishers Weekly

Readers of L'Amour's Westerns and his recent medieval saga The Walking Drum will not be disappointed by this contemporary epic. Proving that he is above all a great raconteur, the prolific L'Amour sets his latest in Siberia where a downed American test pilot, Joseph ``Joe Mack'' Makatozi, has been taken after his capture by the Russians. Part Sioux, Joe Mack escapes prison only to face the seemingly impossible odds of getting across Siberia to the Bering Strait, where like his ancestors, he can cross into North America. Joe Mack is a classic American hero, thrown back into the wilderness and forced to rely on his wits and his ancestral skills to survive the deadly cold and elude his Soviet pursuers, including his nemesis, a Siberian tracker. L'Amour brings the same colorful realism to this sweeping adventure that has made his Westerns so beloved. 350,000 copy first printing; Literary Guild main selection. ( July)