It's a violent beginning, and the violence increases after the reader learns Jeff has ridden into this small New Mexico town because he's on the run from the law. When we first meet 30-year-old Jeff Cameron, the protagonist and hero of 'La Grulla,' he is beating a stranger unconscious after witnessing the man lash his horse with a rawhide quirt. This western novel takes the classic 1880s story set-up - a lone cowboy who rides into town and finds trouble - and subverts the genre in different ways. From the first page to the last, you will find this a difficult, perhaps impossible, book to put down. Enjoy, as well, the wry humor of the frontier Scotsman, Sandy, who excels equally in battle and in whisky-fueled fun. Join Jeff Cameron on the hardest ride of his life, to its heart-stopping resolution. It is the story of one extraordinary horseman, a trio of very bad brothers, some of the most powerful female characters in contemporary Western fiction, and an amazing mouse-colored mare.įollow a cast of authentic players bound together by unspeakable wickedness on one side, and uncommon friendship on the other. This is a cinematic novel, played out against the stunning backdrop of the American Southwest. Neither did Maggie MacTeague expect the love of her life to ride through her ranch gate on a big, buckskin gelding, leading a little blue mare. What that early Taos morning brought him, instead, was a violent confrontation with a vaquero by the name of “Bad Jimmy” Lucero, leaving him relentlessly pursued.

And eventually, when he found the right place, a piece of land to raise Spanish-blooded horses. What he wanted was a hot meal, and then a hot bath.

Young Jeff Cameron was not looking for trouble when he rode into Taos, New Mexico, that cold November morning in 1882.

La Grulla by John R. Wright