Eighteen years have passed since Sam Morgan came West from Pennsylvania and learned the perilous business of trapping in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. Now, in 1840, he seems to face a bleak future. The fur trade has played out and he must find other means of making a living. Sam decides to return to California with his daughter Esperanza and start a new life. The great golden land represents a bitter memory — his beloved Crow Indian wife Meadowlark died there in childbirth — but friends convince him that his destiny lies on the Pacific shore. Meadowlark’s uncle, Flat Dog, his family, and Hannibal MacKye, the half-Delaware mountain man, join Sam and Esperanza for the journey west, where they hope to trade for a herd of Appaloosa horses to sell at a profit in California. At Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail, Sam and his people encounter a terrified woman, Lei Palua, who has escaped the clutches of a psychopath called Kanaka Boy, whose gang of killers and rapists has been terrifying Indian villages in the Northwest. Sam Morgan and his people take Lei Palua under their wing unaware that her one-time lover and now bloodthirsty nemesis dogs her trail, vowing to kill her and all who stand in his way. The popular Rendezvous series continues with its sixth installment, this one set in 1840, 12 years since A Long and Winding Road (2007). Sam Morgan is still a trapper, but he’s not sure for how much longer, as the fur trade is waning. Faced with the daunting task of finding a new way of life for himself and his daughter, Sam decides to return to California by way of the Oregon Trail. Along the way, he encounters a woman who claims she’s escaped from her kidnapper, the vicious Kanana Boy. Sam promises to protect the woman, but he doesn’t know that he may have vowed to give his own life to save hers. Fans of the Rendezvous series, it need hardly be said, will enjoy this novel; however, through some clever storytelling and the seamless insertion of important background information, Blevins has made sure that readers unfamiliar with the series can follow it, too. This is one of those westerns that’s more about its characters than it is about gunplay, although there are some exciting action scenes. --David Pitt "The glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich." --Kirkus Reviews on Beauty for Ashes "Blevins possesses a rare skill in masterfully telling a story-to-paper. He is a true storyteller in the tradition of Native people." --Lee Francis, Associate Prof. of Native American Studies, University of New Mexico Win Blevins, an authority on the Plains Indians and fur-trade era of the West, is author of Give Your Heart to the Hawks , Charbonneau, Rock Child , RavenShadow, and Stone Song , his prize-winning novel of Crazy Horse, as well as the Rendezvous novels. He lives in Utah with his wife Meredith, also a novelist. Used Book in Good Condition