Wolves of Eden, McCarthy - B

                     This superb novel is set in the Dakota Territory in 1866. The principal characters are a drunken Irish lieutenant named Molloy and his sergeant, Daniel Kohn. Kohn keeps Molloy on the straight and narrow (more or less). The other key participants are the Irish brothers Mike and Tom Kelly. They came to America to escape the arm of the law only to wind up fighting in the war during which Tom took a mini ball in his mouth. Mike has to translate his garbled Gaelic and English utterances. They are so down and out that they rejoin the army for a steady wage and regular meals. Molloy and Kohn are sent to Ft. Phillip Kearny at the end of the Bozeman Trail to investigate the death of the camp sutler*.  The sutler ran a string of whores, one of whom Tom falls for. When the mean-spirited sutler's wife slaps Tom's whore, all hell breaks loose, with Mike killing the sutler and the whores killing the wife. Kohn sorts it out and has Mike in chains when every man in the fort is called out to fend off a Sioux raid. The battle known as Fetterman's Massacre takes Kohn to his grave, and leaves Mike bleeding out on the plain In many ways, this is a wonderful exposition of life on the plains and in the army. 

*Sutlers provided goods to soldiers and were allowed to attach a soldier's wages for payment.