I am pleased to inform you that my latest Western novel, Ghost of the Guadalupe, is now available as an ebook on Amazon. Trade paperback editions should be available in a few weeks, and an audiobook version will also be in production shortly.
Ghost of the Guadalupe is a standalone novel set in the semi-arid lands of southeastern New Mexico at the base of the north side of the Guadalupe Mountains (the southern part of the mountains is located in Texas). It is an isolated land with a scattering of small ranchos and a structure called the Triad owned by Dr. Roman Hayes, an older man who lives in the stone building that also houses a trading post and two-bed hospital. He has had a long relationship with the “ghost” that resides in the Guadalupe but has never seen the frequent visitor to the Triad.
Doc Hayes’s best friend and neighbor is Conor Byrne, a young, former West Pointer, trying to eke out a living in this near-barren land that both men love.
Two events change the lives of the friends and spur the Ghost to action. First, a young woman, Kathleen Ryan, nearly kills the man who claims to be her common law husband with the butt end of an axe. She is arrested, jailed and escapes with a deputy’s horse, eventually ending up as a fugitive at the Triad. Then, a lawyer for the notorious Santa Fe Ring, notifies Doc, Conor, and other residents of the area to vacate their properties because of a Spanish land grant claim. Enforcers are already nearby to compel eviction.
This is one of my longer novels because of two running plot lines. Those who have read my Law Wranglers series will meet up again with two of the lawyers, Jael Rivers (a/k/a She Who Speaks) and Danna Sinclair. I also introduce a new supporting character, Henry Ossian Flipper, West Point’s first black graduate, a fascinating character from history. I have read a great deal about this interesting man and hope to find a story someday that will give him the role he deserves.
My next project is Bushwa, another standalone with a familiar character from the Lockwood series. This book will take Obadiah “Bushwa” Sparks back to the years before he appeared in Lockwood, Wyoming. I anticipate that this will be a fun, yet very challenging, story. We are shooting for late fall release.
On another note, for those who enjoy reading western non-fiction, I recently finished reading Standing Bear is a Person by Stephen Dando-Collins. This book has been out for about 20 years and is available on Amazon. This is a story of the Ponca “Trail of Tears” from Northeastern Nebraska to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and the legal battle Chief Standing Bear waged to return to his homeland. The result was a landmark court decision that declared that Indians were people with rights, also. This book is paced much like a novel, and those who have not read the Standing Bear story and like history should enjoy this one.
My thanks always to those who read my novels. I try very hard not to disappoint my readers.
Best wishes and good reading,
Ron Schwab