The Texas-Mexico border, the winter of 1886—The Great Die Up. A raw rift separates Mexicans and Anglos. A loner cowpoke and a mute Mexican girl fight man and nature to reunite.
Out of work cowpoke Bud Eugen comes across Marta, a mute sixteen-year old Mexican girl whose family has been killed by Indians. Bud reluctantly takes her along, even though he’s never had to accommodate another person in … another person in his simple life. He’s unable to find anyone willing to take her. In spite of his prejudices, Bud grows to like the spunky girl (and her excellent cooking).
Eventually, they both find work on a border ranch. Here, the relationship between the girl and the young cowboy hesitantly grows. But banditos raid the ranch, kidnapping the rancher’s daughters and Marta. Bud, with twelve other men, pursue the banditos into the most desolate reaches of Mexico. Ambushes and battles with banditos, Rurales, and traitors are constant, and the brutal weather is as much a threat as the man-made perils. Life and death choices are made at every turn as one side gains the advantage, then the other.
The rancher’s daughters are rescued, and the exhausted party turns back. But Bud presses on alone, against insurmountable odds – determined to fulfill an unspoken promise to Marta.
Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award for Best Western Novel 2014 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist for Best First Western Novel 2014 Western Writers of America Spur Award Finalist for Best Traditional Western Novel for 2013
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Good story but hard to read at times because of the violence. we
NOT BY TYPE OF BOOK
Great story. I read it in a week.
Not your typical Western, but a really good read. Many twists.
a great read. the characters relationships evolved naturally and logically. A long struggle that had a good ending.
I found this book unable to grab me within the first 3 chapters – it’s a long way to go and be terribly bored reading it. Typically this would be my kind of read – but I didn’t even find the characters likeable…they seemed whiney and self centered. I dumped the book off my kindle. Wasn’t one I want to read again…and I tried 3 separate times. Couldn’t do it. I was so disappointed.
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
What can I say? I loved it! My kind of book, very authentic!
Looking forward to his next book,RIDE HARDER.
If I read it, it was excellent !!!!! I READ IT. JAK, jr.
I am very familiar with the area, but not at the time setting. Most Emloyable !!!
I loved this book! The characters were so well fleshed out that you could see them in your mind. I enjoyed the language and slang they used, so appropriate for the characters and their time. It was a page turner when they were out to get the girls back. The story made you hate the bad guys with a passion. I really enjoyed this book.
I didn’t think I would particularly enjoy a western cowboy book. I was wrong!! However, what propelled me to love this book was not, though it did not detract me from liking the book, the ranching, herding, shootings, scalping, lynching, amongst other things done by and to the cowboys and indians in the story. There were plenty of those, and in very descriptive details. No. What kept my interest in the book is the growing love story between the young cowboy and the mute Mexican girl he found/rescued/protected on the road. It goes to prove that the most powerful love story does not need explicit sex scenes or even smart and saucy conversation to fan the ember of love. Not only was the heroine mute, it was also never explicitly clarified whether the girl understood English. The cowboy kept increasing his spanish vocabulary, and kept talking to the girl even when he was never sure she understood him. The bravery and stubbornness of a young mute girl and the clueless young cowboy made this a page turner for me. I couldn’t put the book down, and finished it in one sitting. Excellent storytelling!
If you like westerns you will like this book. Has some interesting characters and a good story.
I’m not really a shoot em up cowboys fan but I was looking for something different and found myself captivated by the story. I loved this story and highly recommend it!
Very interesting and thought prevoking book. A look back about how people really thought and acted.
Could not get interested
Fabulous reading experience! I am looking up everything I can find by this author.
Kept me interested from beginning to end.
very good realistic description of SW Texas and how unforgiving the weather and terrain can be.
An eye-opener as to how life was on the U.S./Mexican border in that era. Brutal, fast moving, lawless and hard-living! Hard to imagine compared to how we live today with the exception that perhaps realizing that some of the lawlessness does still exist! It was a hard book to put down until I finished it.