When Beatrice Little Fox Begay, a Navajo, stepped into the local high school principal's office and interrupted a conversation, Clayton Running Deer Navasie's life became even more complicated. He had just been convicted and sentenced for DUI and assaulting a Boiling Springs Pueblo police officer, lectured to by the Pueblo's sitting governor, endured the wrath of his little brother at his family's dinner table, and come clean with the cross-country team he had been ordered to coach as part of his community service. Now this woman– a classic Native American Indian beauty also endowed with the sharpest of minds - was also enlisted to help him recover from the PTSD he acquired as a highly decorated but mentally scarred Vietnam veteran. She added another twist to his complex life. In the next twelve months he would be challenged like never before. He would be helped by a gruff Brooklyn-born psychologist and a group of combat veterans at the local VA hospital, challenged and encouraged by a Hispanic boss who knew he had impressive leadership qualities, work with Beatrice to establish a competitive running club, help a fellow veteran in need, and begin to understand and embrace the love of a community and a woman who wanted him to succeed. It would be an exciting adventure until death looked Little Fox and Running Deer in the eye just outside a New Mexico State Police field station just miles from the Continental Divide.
This is a multi-layered story set in the high desert of New Mexico just after the Vietnam War. New Mexico is a state of great beauty which accommodates multiple cultures filled with worthwhile traditions. The novel is fraught with romance, conflict, unique characters, death, and danger. Be prepared to learn something about the state and its people as you travel from one adventure to the next.