Author Description

This novel is the biography of a ficticious character, FRV, who lives through some historically significant times, mostly in Mexico, tied to a sub-plot (each Chapter One and Epilogue - told in the first person) which is a mystery about the circumstances surrounding the hero's death, burial and display in Guanajuato's Mummy Museum. From the battle of Trafalgar, FRV is waylaid to America. Delayed in returning by the Napoleonic wars in Spain, he is accepted into a Mexican family and joins his friend Miguel in the first battles for independence in 1810. He is disillusioned by this experience and quits the fight but is carried along with the flow of events, just as the more militant Miguel is borne from battle to battle, until they finally escape together with the women they love to the tropical Pacific where they make their fortunes. FRV returns with his young family after independence and becomes a rancher. A very old man in 1877, FRV is seen to murder an unarmed priest on the steps of a church then die. Only the Bishop of Guanajuato and the readers know why!