Author Description

An explorer story in the cowboy land of the west. Amidst the troubles in town, a great warmth was going on. This book set in Central California and still in the hands of a pioneer family is the setting for edgy science, cowboys, and a mysterious global cartel. Native American Kate Fox is caught in an unwitting trap within a few days after landing a job at the Mariposa Ranch. She is thrust into a maelstrom of environmental regulators because of sudden mass illness at one of the town's schools not far from the Ranch. Finding a way to cope with and quickly solve the problem, she earns the respect of the eccentric ranch owner and his cowboy foreman. Instead of returning to serenity, the pace quickens with a backroom intrigue about the sale of the ranch, a female cowboy who claims to have evidence concerning a valuable cache buried by Butch Cassidy on land near the Ranch property and a murder with the victim left in the middle of a crop circle. The local police chief is accused of putting the wrong man in custody, and that error appears to put Kate's life in jeopardy.