I guess I can't get away from Louis L'amour. When I want to choose an audio book to listen to hither and yon while I'm driving around, it's easy to choose something that I've read probably at least twice already. This jumped out at me, because I'm currently on a mission era Southern California history rampage and Louis L'amour does a great job of weaving this story in with some very accurate historical facts. He even refers to such actual characters as Pico Pio and Don Abel Stearns. (btw I believe my great great grandmother tutored or worked in the home of Abel Stearns the famed merchant in the pueblo of Los Angeles at some point before marrying the patriarch. Forgive me, he wasn't a patrarch yet.) Sorry, I can't resist name dropping and inserting my own relatives into these narratives. However Anna O'Keefe, Irish ancestor who sailed solo from Ireland and then around the horn to join her sister in California was one plucky gal.
Back to Louis: The story is set in Malibu which in this story is the ranch headquarters of a proud Irish widow and her two sons. The plot involves some scoundrels who want the ranch which is in debt. It involves a Spanish girl escaping from an arranged marriage and being rescued by the widow's son. No one calls her the widow. They call her the Senora. She's all business and beauty too of course. There is a wild goose chase through the mountains back of Malibu led by a mysterious Native American who may have time traveled and is one of "The ones who were here before."
Louis L'amour has a few books where he includes a more mystical angle. I have read Haunted Mesa and it is a bit similar to this one, in that it alludes to a parallel world where some natives travel back and forth.
Well, predictably, the hero gets the girl and the gold with great dignity and manages to save the ranch. L'amour artfully educates the reader about some native american culture, the Californios culture (with its unique blend of Spanish/Mexican/native/some anglo culture, and the incoming tide of the industrious United States. I appreciate his descriptions of flora and fauna in this one.
Oh why the heading? Well, Louis L'amour has some expressions that he must use in multiple books, because when he started in on this one, I found myself saying it out loud with the reader who did a great job btw. I can't remember his name but he was switching off between irish, spanish, and native accents and made it sound easy,
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