Amanda, the beautiful young niece of Tahlequah, Oklahoma's most prominent Cherokee chieftain, returned home from an ivy league college to find her mother dying. As she copes with the loss of her mother, she is torn between three prominent men, a well educated Easterner, a prominent Cherokee leader, and the young Indian outlaw she grew up with. Amid the political unrest just prior to America's Civil War, Amanda finds herself caught up in the search for lost Cherokee gold, and a deadly struggle among the people she loves. Should she abandon her homeland and the culture of her people to enjoy wealth and privilege in the East? Should join her cousin in the fight for her family's dedication to the Cherokee people? Or, should she abandon everything she believes in and everyone she ever cared about to follow her heart? Author Peggy Jo Hall spent years researching the background for her book Dark Lies the Shadow. She has captured much of the folklore of the Cherokee, and brought those turbulent, pre-war times to life.