Book description
While recovering from breast cancer, journalist Jeneva Leopold seeks
solitude and healing at her uncle's idle gold mine in the sagebrush
desert of Eastern Oregon. Hiking the rocky ridges, swimming in the old
mining pond, and ignoring the outside world save for occasional letters,
Jeneva gains strength and a new will to live. As her interest in life
returns, so do Jeneva's journalistic habits. And though the locals are
at first disturbed by her questions, she soon gets to know a young woman
rancher, various miners, a quirky old artifact hunter, and an itinerant
priest and medieval scholar. She learns the inside story on living in
the harsh landscape of sagebrush and coyotes and how the Old West is
changing under new economics and regulation. But the Oregon desert is
also a place of secrets. The more Jeneva talks with the locals, the more
she wonders about her uncle's mysterious disappearance and why he and
her mother stopped talking so many years ago. Then the death of a young
miner sends Jeneva on a quest for answers, leading her to an elderly
woman artist who lives in a converted chicken house, a tongue-tied
funeral home owner, and a swashbuckling sheriff with rule-bending
tendencies. What she finally uncovers shocks the region and nearly
claims her life. Jeneva “Neva” Leopold, a journalist, is severely
depressed after undergoing a double mastectomy. She retreats to the
abandoned cabin of her Uncle Matthew in the desert of Eastern Oregon.
Using exercise, simple living, and isolation to combat her depression,
she begins to heal. She avoids the locals until they begin to intrude on
her quiet life. Skipper Dooley, an artifact hunter, camps near her cabin
and rancher Darla Steadman takes her riding. As she learns about life in
the harsh desert region, she raises questions about her uncle: Why did
he disappear years before, and why had he and her mother stopped
speaking before that? The murder of a young miner sends her on a quest
for more information. As she investigates, she encounters the eccentric
inhabitants of the area and learns that the locals are sure that she is
searching for her uncle's hidden stash of gold. Fascinating characters,
evocative descriptions of a relatively unknown area, and a first-rate
plot make this an outstanding debut. This is a definitely a series to
watch. Mystery writer Ashna Graves came into being on a warm June
afternoon in 1997, and owes her existence to an extended illness, a nice
chair in a garden and an empty yellow legal pad. She was born in Santa
Fe to restless, bookish parents who moved her and two brothers all over
the West. She continued to be a nomad far into adulthood, adding
countries and continents to her wanderings. In 1989, Ashna began
teaching college journalism, then moved to the university's humanities
research center, where she was made associate director in 2003. She has
continued to travel; to Argentina and Taiwan, and to spend time in the
emptier regions of the American West with her botanist companion, who is
also her best reader and advisor on the how's and why's of violent crime
in a region of unsurpassed natural beauty. Like her heroine, Ashna lives
quietly in an old house within walking distance of her office.
