The opening scene is the tranquil Glimmerglass Lake. A week, many adventures, and 576 pages later the book ends with Glimmerglass Lake once again as tranquil as it was before the adventures of Deerslayer took place. In the space of one week, there is mystery, romance, adventure, battle scenes, and Deerslayer becoming a warrior in his own right.

In reading this book, one must remember several things. First, it was the writing style in 1841 to write long, wordy, descriptive sentences. Today's modern reader may struggle with that, but I found the story itself worth all the extra verbiage.

Secondly, it's easy to see Deerslayer as racist or prejudice. Deerslayer keeps referring to "white gifts" and "Indian gifts" and if one did not understand the time in which the book is written, it would be easy to assume that he was racist. However, Hurry Harry's view of Indians as being almost less than human was probably more the common view of the day, and it definitely is a racist view. Deerslayer sees Indians and whites as equal, though different. I'm sure that was quite a liberal view for 1841 and especially for the days of the French and Indian War which was the setting for the novel. I believe that if there had been more Deerslayers and fewer Hurry Harry's in America, there would have been fewer atrocities committed against the American Nations.

Thirdly, I love how Deerslayer is a Christian and he allows that to speak into all areas of his life. Even where I may disagree with his conclusions, he paints Deerslayer as a man of convictions, of honesty, and of integrity. I did have a few problems with some of Deerslayer's conclusions, such as believing that all men will make it to "heaven" or to the "happy hunting grounds" or whatever they call it if they have followed their "god/God" and have lived a good life.

All in all, I enjoyed the book.