ArizonaRanger - Bruce West - Bog

Former Arizona Ranger, Sam Allen is trying to convince himself he can be content retiring to a rocking chair but destiny has other ideas. A Son's Blood is the story of Sam's pursuit of the Mexican killers of his son. An educated man, the product of southern aristocracy, Sam was a commander in the Confederate Army, and had returned from the war to find his parents dead and the plantation taken by carpet baggers. Now a widower, he is surprised to learn that the killers of his son were vaqueros working for his wife's Mexican cousins. The fugitive Mexicans, led by the patrician Alejandro Herrera, are confronted by Apaches led by the fierce warriors, Geronimo and Juh. At the same time, Sam is wounded by an Apache warparty and rescued by Papago warriors. While Alejandro and his men are stripped of everything they own and forced to walk naked across the unrelenting desert, Sam is taken to a Papago village where he is nursed back to health by Shashani, a former lover. The rekindling of their relationship doesn't deter the old Ranger from returning to the chase as soon as he's able. Captured by the Apache Kid in an unforgettable battle in Cazador Canyon near the Mexico Border, Sam is taken to the El Mundo Rancho, where he is confronted by Alejandro and his powerful father, the Baron of Sonora. The ensuing duel is a not-to-be-missed battle between a strong cocky youth and a wiser more experienced man. What makes A Son's Blood stand alone among adventure stories isn't only that Sam Allen is older than the typical western hero. It's the author's intimate relationship to the desert, a place his family settled a century-and-a-half ago. Names, descriptions, characters, even judicious use of Papago, Apache and Spanish languages gives one a personal feeling of old Arizona. In the words of the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper, "The characters and events of the Arizona border country come alive as you ride the vengeance trail with a veteran Arizona Ranger . . . you're behind-the-scenes at the O.K. Corral shootout, in the desert with Geronimo and the last of the wild free-roaming Apaches-it's a book that puts you into the heart of Old Arizona in a personal way."