Last of the Breed, by Louis L'amour, was a past recommendation of the Historical Favorites Yahoo reading group. I can't understand why anyone would have felt it should be classified as historical but, in any event, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Four stars with only a teeny quibble! Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

Major Joe "Mack" Makatozi, a full blooded Sioux and skilled experimental pilot is captured and sent to a top-secret prison camp in the depths of Siberia when his aircraft is forced down over a hostile cold war Russia. His escape over the wire and his flight into the hostile environment of winter Siberia triggers a nation wide manhunt spearheaded by the commandant of the camp, Colonel Arkady Zamatev (who is all too aware of the harsh "career-limiting" results of mistakes in Communist Russia) and Alekhin, a skilled and ruthless Yakut tracker who has never yet failed to reel in an escapee, more often dead than alive.

Initially confident that they can corral their man in short order, Zamatev and Alekhin fail to realize how quickly Mack's indomitable Sioux spirit, his lust for life and his astounding survival skills, learned during his upbringing as a Sioux warrior, will come to the surface and allow him to evade capture over a two year period. Hunting with a handmade bow and arrows, preparation of emergency camps, astonishing hair's breadth escapes, lethal traps set to confound the small army on his trail, construction of leather breeches and moccasins in the field, fire-starting, extreme cold weather survival skills, fording of rivers, cross-country navigation and much, much more are described with an exciting sense of realism and adventure that never falls into the trap of portraying Mack as invincible.

The ending is a grim one that is based on Mack's historical sense of native justice and retribution against his tormenter, Alekhin, and provides a very satisfying completion to Last of the Breed as a stand alone novel. But his sworn revenge against Zamatev and his relationship with Natalya Baronas, a Russian peasant he met in his flight to the Bering Strait remain open and unresolved. Sadly, the obvious plans for a sequel will never come to fruition as L'Amour has passed away.

Nay-sayers and detractors will point out that L'Amour ignored some pretty obvious tools that would have likely resulted in Mack's almost certain re-capture - dogs, infrared thermography and high resolution satellite imagery are three possibilities that come to mind immediately. But then we wouldn't have had a perfectly delightful, fast-paced, exciting adventure to read, would we? Detractors be damned - it was a great story! Read it, live a little and enjoy.