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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One of the best westerns
Enjoyed every minute of it even when it was breaking my heart. Kind of gruesome but that’s what made it so realistic.
A good read of action in the wild west. It is suspenseful and interesting to the point of my thinking how lucky we are to live now and not then.
Well written saga in vernacular of the day. The protagonist is a sympathetic character and well fleshed out. I found myself rooting for him after the first few pages.
A fun read
This one is a winner. Worth reading more than once. You feel you almost develop a Relationship with the characters. One of the best I’ve red in a long time!
Suspenseful.
Very enjoyable read
Great western.
I don’t usually read westerns so it surprised me it was on my kindle. I must have chose it from reviews. Well it was outstanding and hard to put down. Bud was an uneducated cowboy who did amazing tracking to find some kidnapped girls. Read and enjoy as I have.
Excellent story line with many good characters. Hard to put down. Can’t wait to read the sequel.
When a book has you rooting for the characters, you know you are into something good. The abusive treatment/events and exploitation toward women was pretty hard to take and not enjoyable at all to read. The horses, heroes and one strong-willed survivor girl kept me reading. A very strange but interesting story and cast of characters.
This book had interesting characters after a bit of a slower start picked up and kept you turning pages.
This is a western fiction based in the Texas/Mexico of the mid 1800’s. Bud is a cowboy out of work going to a ranch who might hire him. On the way he finds Marta a 16 year old mute Mexican girl who has lost all of her family to a war band of Indians. Bud has never had to take care of any one but himself but takes her with the intent of finding someone to keep her. After getting the job at the ranch Marta is still with him. When Marta and the boss’s two daughters are kidnapped the whole crew go to get them back.
Some situations are lifelike and very discriptive and not for the faint of heart
Gripping story and well told.
Too graphic
This book started out pretty well. It brought in characters and got me interested in what was to come. But by the second half of the book, it seemed every other chapter I was reading the same thoughts by the main character. I really find that annoying and found myself scanning chapters rather than reading them.
you know whats comming but still enjoy the story
Probably the best book I’ve read all year. I gave this book to all my brothers and brother-in-law for Christmas as a gift and each one of them reported back to me how much they loved the story, characters, events of the time period. Don’t miss this one. I’ve ordered the sequels and can’t wait to get into them.