The Heritage of the Desert: A Novel

A wounded outsider is taken in by a close-knit Mormon ranching family and recovers while becoming entangled in frontier life. Menacing cattle thieves and rival claimants provoke rides, ambushes and narrow escapes across canyons, plateaus and desert ranges. The narrative alternates vigorous action—horsebreaking, tracking and confrontations—with quieter scenes of community, duty and daily labor at water-holes and homesteads. Conflicts over land, water and honor shape alliances and betrayals as individuals confront obligations to kin and conscience. Expansive landscape description and episodic episodes of adventure drive the story toward resolution of property disputes and personal reckonings.