It's my understanding that Alan Geoffrion is friends with Robert Duvall and that this story was written with him in mind. Even though the main plot is based on apparent historical fact, the character of Print Ritter is so reminiscent of Augustus McCrae that I think there was some tailoring done to make it a Duvall role in case there was ever a film version! But onto the book itself. The prose style is not as ornate or deep as my preference, but I found myself enjoying it immensely nonetheless. It was clean, stripped of any bloat or frills, and showed the characters' emotions and predicaments in a bare, frontier manner. One area that needed some more attention was the budding romance between Tom Harte & Sun Foy - despite the language barrier, to have their interaction consist mainly of glances was unsatisfying, especially at the end of the book where she gets onto the coach for San Francisco and their union is only revealed with one sentence in an Afterword. For the heart of the story, it should have had further exploration or resolution.

But that's what fanfiction is for, am I right? :-)

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I really enjoyed this book...there is no denying that the character of Print Ritter is based on Robert Duvall (as author states in questions at the end of the book)...when I read the physical description of Ritter, Duvall immediately came to mind. I loved the main characters in the book...even though the book isn't long, the author still gives the readers a good sense of who the characters are and I learned to care about them. I thought the addition of the Chinese girls was an interesting twist to the western novel. The writing was great and the plot was well-developed. I think it's a second after the Lonesome Dove series for me. 5 stars.

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I have to admit I bought this book because I am a Robert Duval fan and wanted to see what his new move was about. What I found was a captivating story of the West. Characters that are not all white hat against black hat but still have a sense of right and wrong. I would recommend this book to everyone.

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Good tale of the Old West. Historical fiction which focuses on Chinese women sold in to prostitution and how they survived, escaped, in a coda, prospered.

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"A bowed and worn old cowboy", Print Ritter, is the hero of this moving depiction of the West still perilous after the Indian Wars, the Civil War and the early pioneers are becoming subjects of the history books; his sister dies and leaves her fortune to him alone. Riding "Bob" his trail companion of many years, he searches out her wrangler son, with a scheme to share the wealth with Tom Hart, his nephew. South Africa needs horses for Lord Kitchener's army to continue to wage his ruthless war there and Print and Tom gather a large number to trail northeast to Sheridan Wyoming and sell to the horse brokers waiting there. A rotgut type arrives at their camp one night and ties up nearby with his wagon and the five Chinese girls he has bought in San Francisco planning to sell them to the miners in the east. He later manages to steal from them and run off with Print's favorite horse. Tom pursues the villain and hangs him on the trail. Finding their goods and the horse he stole, Tom goes back to Print and the herd. Both of them now wonder what they are going to do shepherding a bunch of little Chinese girls, to a safe haven. And this is just the beginning of their journey.
The dialogue continues to be intriguing and the doggedness of the westerners continues to astonish modern descendents who have never known the many challenges the early travelers faced in the attempts to profit in this forbidding but beautiful country. A wonderfully woven tale. The story was filmed as "The Broken Trail", starring Robert Duval. (What a good choice to play "Print").

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I enjoy reading westerns and this one I had seen the movie and reading the book enhansed the experience of having read and watched the movie. I recommend both to anyone who likes westerns.

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Unlike most western books and movies of today, Broken Trail delivers something a little different. Alan Geoffrion writes of a story entwined with wit, adventure, survival, and of course women. Don't get confused by the women, because it starts out in a different way than expected but ends even better.
A western 'business' woman sends for five young ladies to be sent to America from China to work under her as prostitutes in her hotel and bar. Two unlikely men become part of this story when they decide to drive a humongous herd of mustangs for the army down into a western state together. Along the way the men end up meeting with many different characters who mean well, and some who only mean trouble.
Eventually these two men, Print Ritter and Tom, cross paths with these five women and finally come to the conclusion that they cannot allow for harm to come upon them.
Is there love between one of these five women and either Print Ritter, or Tom? Of course there is, but it's true love... not the kind of 'love' where two only want to sleep together.
But the most fantastic part of this story is, it's a true story... and it will keep you laughing, crying, and turning every page unstoppably until you are finished wanting more.

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"A rich and well-written western that offers humor and a glimpse of what the old west was like." -- USABookNews.com

"If you enjoyed Lonesome Dove, you will not be disappointed with this novel...It belongs in every western lover's library." -- Historical Novels Review, November, 2006.

This heartfelt novel traces the intertwined fates of a pair of honest horse wranglers and a group of kidnapped Chinese women during the late 1800s. Based on historical documents and more than five years of research, Broken Trail is the basis for the Emmy award-winning AMC cable network's first original production, starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church.

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