“Crow Mary” by Kathleen Grissom, c.2023, Atria, $28.99, 368 pages

The wagon is packed plumb to the top.

It’s so full, the horses strain to pull it but nothing can be left behind. Blankets, hides, supplies, guns, a lodge, they’ll all be needed at the new homestead. It’s been said that the land where you’re going is unforgiving and dangerous but a new life is the only choice. Thankfully, in the new novel, “Crow Mary” by Kathleen Grissom, a part of the old life will follow.

Though Red Fox said it wasn’t her fault, Goes First always remembered what happened in her seventh summer. When Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne warriors attacked her grandmother’s camp, Goes First called to Grandmother, who stood up and was killed in the chaos. 

Goes First blamed herself for a long time.

But Red Fox said that truth-telling was brave, and he liked the little girl who called him Grandfather. He passed stories and knowledge to her, how to ride a galloping horse, how to shoot a gun, and how to hunt. Soon, Goes First could do these things almost better than any Crow warrior.

That served her well when, in her sixteenth summer, a Yellow Eye trader named Farwell came through their camp, and he asked permission to marry Goes First. She did not know him, nor was she sure she trusted him. Like all Crow women, she had the option to say “no.” When Farwell brought her a special gift, though, she knew it was a sign, a message from the Other Side Camp and she had to go with him.

Leaving her family was the hardest part, but learning the ways of the Yellow Eyes was not easy, either. She didn’t like that they renamed her “Mary,” but “Crow Mary” suited her. She didn’t like going to Canada, so far from her family and friends. She hated that Farwell sold alcohol to the tribes there, and she didn’t like Farwell’s friends.

She especially didn’t like the man called Stiller, who looked at Mary in ways that made her squirm. Stiller, who would upend her life again and again...

If you merely looked at “Crow Mary” with the thought that it’s just a female-driven Western, you’d still like this novel a lot. It’s got everything you want in an Old West tale, after all, but think of it as only another Western, and you miss the best part.

In her back-of-book notes, author Kathleen Grissom explains how she stumbled upon the tale of Crow Mary in a small museum, how it captivated her, and why it led her to research and write this “fiction based on fact.” Indeed, Grissom’s deep journey adds meaning, making it a pleasure for readers to forget here that they’re not in 1870s Montana and there’s no hoss in the garage.

That turns a good Western saga into a great (and mostly-true) account that lets novel lovers dip their toes into real life, and gives nonfiction readers an absorbing tale with highly appealing authenticity. You’ll both agree that “Crow Mary” is packed with a grand story.