The Shield of the Valiant (1945) is one of the longest novels of the Sac Prairie saga that Derleth ever wrote. Covering the period 1938-41, it is an expansive narrative of the intertwined lives of several key citizens of that small town in Wisconsin: Rena Janney, an attractive teenager who is wooed by Kivden Sewall, to his parents' disapproval; Van Vliet Waterbury, the town's banker, overseeing the financial tribulations of citizens poor and...