The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook is the story of a brother, Benjamin, a sister, Samantha and a panther. The panther attacks Sam but was pulled away from the child by her mother, who ended up getting badly mauled and died from the attack. Samantha was both physically and emotionally scarred and vowed that she would kill this panther.
After also losing their father, the two orphans carry on as best as they can but the story gets really interesting when a few years later, the panther returns.

The story is narrated by teenage Ben who writes a series of very descriptive letters and sends them to a circuit judge as evidence against the villain Hanlin who is wanted for murder and robbery. Ben & Samantha end up as part of a panther hunting party with a Mexican man called Pachero, who may or may not be a bandit, and the elderly Preacher Dob and his dog, Zachariah. The villain Hanlin confronts them again as he wants money from the Mexican and revenge upon Samantha who shot off his finger in a previous scuffle.

While Ben struggles with right and wrong and tries to always do the right thing, he often loses his patience with Samantha but he is protective of her. Samantha is obsessed by her vendetta against the panther. Although she is a mulatto and Ben’s half sister, her abrasive personality dominates the hunting party. As Ben writes about his sister, “she is not a joy to look at or to be with”. I really enjoyed this adventure story set just after the Civil War in the Hill Country of Texas. The characters were diverse and had an authentic feel about them and the story was quite simply a damn good yarn. ( )

The Which Way Tree is an enthralling adventure set in Civil War-era Texas. This was a very fun, fast-paced story. The Which Way Tree paints a picture of harsh, stark life in the Old West that maybe stretches plausibility a bit in pursuit of a satisfying narrative. What makes this story unique is that it is an epistolary novel. The Which Way Tree is comprised of letters from our narrator Benjamin which serve as his grand jury testimony in the matter of murder and highway robbery, in the County of Bandera, in April of 1866. We look upon the events of the book with our narrator, Benjamin Shreve, guiding us through his past. This gives the novel an antiquated and folksy feel that won me over.

Benjamin tells us about how a panther mauled his 6-year-old half sister (Samantha) while his stepmother fought it long enough to save the girl but how it took her own life. The incident leaves young Sam disfigured and bent on vengeance. Six years later, she and Ben, having also lost their father to “fever,” are living miserably by themselves when the big cat returns. Their efforts to trap the beast fall short, but they find an ally in a Mexican man named Pacheco while they make a dire enemy of a Confederate soldier named Hanlin, who aims a gun at Sam in their first confrontation and loses a finger when she gets off a lucky shot. Also lucky is Hanlin’s knowledge of a dog in the vicinity that specializes in panther tracking and is owned by his uncle, Preacher Dob. After much palaver, Hanlin departs, for a time, while Dob and his old dog join the quest to track the panther, known to some as El Demonio.

The action is suspenseful and fast-paced; the narrative flows seamlessly; the dialogue often laugh-out-loud funny (“Preacher Dobb said, Vengeance belongs to the Lord, Samantha. She said, Only if he can beat me to it.”). Crook’s research is evident in the period details, rhythms of speech, and history.

Benjamin notes that Samantha’s obsession with the panther is like that of Captain Ahab’s obsession with Moby-Dick. That story is an obvious parallel to The Which Way Tree; a less obvious parallel is Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. This book features a diverse cast of travelers, who join Sam and Ben on their adventure.

Sam might remind you of Mattie Ross from True Grit but she's a bit more hell-bent in her ambitions. Give this book a try. You'll grow to love both her and Ben.

Check this book out for a good yarn.
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Naturally, I liked the Moby Dick structure, but this seemed verbose and the unbelievable letter-writing conceit wore on me. ( )

A future classic of its genre. Set in post-American Civil War Texas, the obsessive search by the girl, Samantha, for the panther who had killed her mother and mauled her very badly, especially facially. A disparate group accompanies her: her older brother, Benjamin; a Mexican, possibly a horse-thief; a minister; his good-for-nothing nephew and the minister's decrepit "panther dog.". The story is told by Benjamin in a series of letters he writes to a judge as a form of deposition, ostensibly about men he found dead at a creek. The story takes off from there. Each of the characters was well-drawn; the story, though simply told was well done, and I really liked the author's use of dialect, phonetic rendering of any Spanish; and the way people might talk, shown in Benjamin's letters. Huckleberry Finn came to mind. The Which Way Tree refers to a tree at which the minister prayed that the Lord show them which way they should now go--forward after the panther, or back to home. I was thinking that in the right hands the story might make a good movie. ( )

Taking place after the Civil war the story is told by Benjamin who witnessed a crime. He is called to testify. As he writes his testimony the reader is taken on a great journey withSam,his sister. Sam mauled by a panther what killed her mother has only one goal in life to kill the panther. Interesting format to the book as well as a great adventure story. I live in the area of the book and have seen many of the places mentioned. Made it more fun. ( )