Land Shadows

Land Shadows
1851, Isle of Barra: Nine-year-old Murdoch McNeil watches his family's land — and his world — stolen out from under him. Decades later, as a rising New York attorney, he's handed a chance to reclaim everything he lost... by signing a forged deed to a vast stretch of land in New Mexico. His father's voice echoes in his head: do anything you have to do to get and keep land.
He signs.
What follows is a sweeping saga of ambition, betrayal, and the American myth of ownership — spanning the Scottish Highlands, Gilded Age New York, and the contested Maxwell Land Grant. Interwoven is the story of Kewanee, a Potawatomi girl fighting to survive the forced assimilation of the Carlisle Indian School, her fate entwined with Murdoch's in ways neither can escape.
Publishers Weekly's BookLife called it a compelling look at cultural heritage, belonging, and identity — one that reveals "the dark side of manifest destiny" (booklife.com/project/land-shadows-100035). Kirkus Reviews recommends it: "Poignant, disturbing, and engaging" (kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rj-striegel/land-shadows).
Winner of the Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award and Maxy Award for Historical Fiction, First Runner-Up in Historical Fiction and a First Horizon Award Finalist in the Eric Hoffer Awards, and named to Shelf Unbound's Top 100 Notable Indie Books of 2025.
For readers of Reyna Grande's A Ballad of Love and Glory and Carlos Fuentes's The Death of Artemio Cruz — a story of land, legacy, and the cost of what we're willing to sign our names to.
More at landshadows.com.