The Austin Chronicles, Book 1: Boggy Depot Shootout

The Austin Chronicles, Book 1: Boggy Depot Shootout is the first in a series of novels about the Austin family (Approximately 187 pages and 71,340 words). Long-time residents of Tennessee, the Austins had to cope with the unique challenges of living in the wild West just after the end of America's Civil War in 1865.

The main character in this novel is young Daniel Austin. Both he and his father Henry had served in the Army of the Confederacy for just over a year when the war ended. As war-weary veterans, they returned home to Tennessee only to find their way of life destroyed by a renegade band of ex-Union soldiers. The clan head, Henry Austin, decided to move on to western Arkansas and start over. So Daniel, his father and mother (Veda) and younger siblings (Amanda and David) headed west with little money but a lot of Christian faith and solid determination.

Daniel Austin's uncle, Benjamin Franklin Austin, had acquired a large tract of pine tree-covered land near Gravely Hills, Arkansas. Crusty ol' Frank offered to give his brother, Henry, part of that land in exchange for helping Frank work his cattle and farm land on occasion. And so their new life began.

Soon, however, their joy was tested by the severe realities of frontier life. Then late one night their lives changed forever as intruders forced their way inside and committed unspeakably brutal acts. And when they left, the lawless men took young siblings Amanda and David with them.

Thus began a desperate search to find and rescue Amanda and David, as well as to see that the guilty were punished. Daniel Austin, his uncle Frank Austin and their neighbor Shorty Russell tracked the men deep into the Indian Territory. And it all came to a dramatic and violent climax at the small village of Boggy Depot.