West from Yesterday: A Simple Man's True Story of War, Survival, Life, and Legacy

"Clairborne embraced his mother, then his sister. He took off his broad-brimmed grey hat, swept it downward in his best cavalier salute, turned and rode off, not once looking back."

There's no turning back in Randolph Carter Harrison's riveting debut novel, "West from Yesterday," where one man's flight from the past may cost him everything.

Tucker Clairborne's world is shattered by the Civil War and its horrific aftermath when his father and brother are killed. Expected to take over the family's Virginia plantation, he abandons expectations and rides west toward the unknown.

This decision plunges Clairborne down a path defined by discovery and sudden death. Dismayed by his talent for killing, he reluctantly joins forces with an ex-slave who served in the 10th US Cavalry regiment. Together, these unlikely allies enter the country's hostile heartland, confronting Comanche, prejudice and the infinite hazard of the landscape they must cross. But the countryside may prove the least of their worries as danger closes in, forcing Clairborne to face down his demons once and for all. An adrenaline-pumping ride through an unforgiving land, "West from Yesterday" brings the Wild West to life like never before.