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by David Chapin (Author)
The year is 1766.
The Seven Years War and Pontiac's War are over, but scars remain. The Upper Country, or Pays d'en Haut, as the region around the Great Lakes is called, has fallen to the British Army. They control forts at Niagara, Detroit, and Michilimackinac, but no one controls the backcountry. It is contested ground, occupied by people who speak Algonquian, French, and Iroquoian languages.
At the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, southwest of Lake Erie, métis interpreter Marguerite Boyer discovers the headless bodies of the New York fur trader Ben Stone and his five Canadien boatmen. They had recently been trading with the Miami and Ottawa people, who live along the river. Marguerite reports the deaths to British authorities in Detroit, who assign, Phineas Philbrook, a New Hampshire-born ensign, to investigate.
Philbrook has only recently arrived in the Upper Country, and knows little of the region or its people, so Marguerite is hired as his interpreter and guide. She must teach him to understand her homeland and its people as they search for answers.
Can Marguerite and Philbrook discover what happened at Auglaize? Only if they recognize that not everyone wants them to succeed, and only if they listen to the diverse voices of the people who call the Pays d'en Haut home.
