An Evans Novel of the West
3 total works
The tinkling of guitars in the moonlight; the softly hummed words of a Spanish love song; the sweet, liquid music of the bells in the mission San Carlos De Carmelo; fleeting pictures of old Father Junipero Serro-these and a hundred other rich memories flood the mind as one unfolds the story of little Suzanna, a peon girl, poor, futureless at a time when the Dons and the grandsons of the conquistadores were supreme in California.
You think of Ramona; the dust covered stretches of El Camino Real-the King's Highway-appear before your eyes; you hear the roaring of quaint, old-fashioned, muzzleloading guns, the clash of cold steel; subconsciously you thrill to the deeds of valor, of sacrifice and danger. You are in step with romance and adventure when it was in its heyday in Old California.
Red-lipped, smoky-eyed senoritas smile on you; your nostrils dilate with ungent aromas of hot, golden brown tortillas, or fragrant, steaming tamales; for you the clock has been turned back a hundred years-you walk in a land that is gone, but in which fate played as recklessly with the lives of men and women as it does in our own world today.
You think of Ramona; the dust covered stretches of El Camino Real-the King's Highway-appear before your eyes; you hear the roaring of quaint, old-fashioned, muzzleloading guns, the clash of cold steel; subconsciously you thrill to the deeds of valor, of sacrifice and danger. You are in step with romance and adventure when it was in its heyday in Old California.
Red-lipped, smoky-eyed senoritas smile on you; your nostrils dilate with ungent aromas of hot, golden brown tortillas, or fragrant, steaming tamales; for you the clock has been turned back a hundred years-you walk in a land that is gone, but in which fate played as recklessly with the lives of men and women as it does in our own world today.
When Angel Irosabel rides with his family into the fertile valleys of Paradise, Nevada, he knows that their grueling journey from Basque country is over-he has found a place for his sheep to graze and for his family to thrive. Little did he know that his arrival would kick off an epic feud between the area cattle ranchers and his own herding clan.
When his daughter Margarida falls in love with Joe Gault, the son of a cowman, Angel can't overcome years of hostility, and instead disowns his treacherous daughter. When tragedy strikes, forcing Joe on the run, leaving Margarida broken-hearted, the cycle of hatred and distrust is passed to the next generation. When the Gaults' son Joseph falls in love with the daughter of another rancher, only time will tell whether family bonds can overcome the rancor that flows deep in the veins of the herders and cowmen.
When his daughter Margarida falls in love with Joe Gault, the son of a cowman, Angel can't overcome years of hostility, and instead disowns his treacherous daughter. When tragedy strikes, forcing Joe on the run, leaving Margarida broken-hearted, the cycle of hatred and distrust is passed to the next generation. When the Gaults' son Joseph falls in love with the daughter of another rancher, only time will tell whether family bonds can overcome the rancor that flows deep in the veins of the herders and cowmen.
An Oregon reservation has suddenly been vacated and Henry Stall, a seasoned ranch owner, didn’t get the news in time. He is driven to continue the expansion of his cattle empire in the American northwest, and when he goes to stake his claim, conflict erupts between the old and new guards of ranchers on the open range.
Stall combats the restraints of his age, and sets off on a strenuous endeavor to confront Jim Montana, his former employee and the commissioner of the newly vacant property. Heads turn as Stall and Montana mobilize and contend for a share in this territory—and to claim it rightfully theirs. Stall is determined to defend his reputation as a veteran proprietor, while Montana wants to assert his own authority as an emerging official, and their collision sets off a whirlwind of scraps, skirmishes, and showdowns.
It falls upon each ranch to wrangle whatever forces it can to carve out a corner of the expanding cattle country before its neighbors. When the law of the land overrides the governing regulations on boundary lines, what emerges is a full-blown range war—and putting down a stake on unclaimed territory becomes more hazardous than ever.
Stall combats the restraints of his age, and sets off on a strenuous endeavor to confront Jim Montana, his former employee and the commissioner of the newly vacant property. Heads turn as Stall and Montana mobilize and contend for a share in this territory—and to claim it rightfully theirs. Stall is determined to defend his reputation as a veteran proprietor, while Montana wants to assert his own authority as an emerging official, and their collision sets off a whirlwind of scraps, skirmishes, and showdowns.
It falls upon each ranch to wrangle whatever forces it can to carve out a corner of the expanding cattle country before its neighbors. When the law of the land overrides the governing regulations on boundary lines, what emerges is a full-blown range war—and putting down a stake on unclaimed territory becomes more hazardous than ever.