The land of rain shadow : Horned Toad, Texas

When colleague Dora Simpson asks Frankie MacFarlane to fill in as geology professor on a whitewater trip through the heart of the Grand Canyon, Frankie jumps at the chance. Eight days. Nearly two hundred miles on the river. One mile deep into the earth. What could go wrong? Everything. Frankie wrenches her knee on the first day. On the second, a solo kayaker forces her to choose between being gutted by a Bowie knife and drowning in the frigid water. Frankie chooses the river. Who wants Frankie dead? And why? As Frankie searches for answers, she discovers that one of her students is traveling incognito, fleeing a forced marriage. Has the Family tracked Molly into the Canyon? How can she escape when the few exit routes will be watched? The threads come together at Phantom Ranch, the only place in the Canyon where bridges link trails descending to the river from the North and South Rims. But will ecoterrorist wannabees bring down the bridges before anyone can escape? With the riveting suspense and acute attention to geological detail that readers have come to love, Frankie faces the Colorado River rapids and the perilous mystery at hand with courage, skill, and ingenuity. They came and scattered themselves about the plains and prairies of West Texas like seeds thrown into the constant winds. In clusters or in singles they dug in. Depending on rainfall, they flourished or failed. Maybe the journeyers arrived in the springtime of a good year and saw the beauty of the place, expecting it to last. Maybe it did last for a season or so before a bad dry spell set in. Maybe it was several years before a real drought appeared, which they foolishly thought would pass. Regardless, there were soon small pockets of people becoming inseparable from the land. Some were made sad, mean, cantankerous, negative; some quiet, kind, patient; but all shared stubbornness, informed by the very land itself. In these eight stories that share the same setting across time, Joyce Gibson Roach writes of the place that sparked her treasured West Texas sensibility. Her fictive Horned Toad calls to stand and speak itself into existence—to live again in words. The characters are all familiar West Texas–types speaking in the tongues of dry places. All reflect their moments in time, proving that human nature does not change in this land of rain shadow. Title Page, Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments In the Lands of Rain Shadow: By Way of Introduction In Broad Daylight Just As I Am The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever Won¬タルt Somebody Shout Amen? A Two-Gun Man The Day After Pearl Harbor The Promised Land Crucero About the Author While Teaching On A Trip To The Grand Canyon, Frankie Macfarlane Is Attacked And Tries To Escape The Canyons, Eventually Up Again Ecoterrorist Wannabes Trying To Destroy One Of The Exits-- Susan Cummins Miller. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. "While teaching on a trip to the Grand Canyon, Frankie MacFarlane is attacked and tries to escape the canyons, eventually up again ecoterrorist wannabes trying to destroy one of the exits"-- Provided by publisher "Collection of short stories detailing the fictitious lives of people in Horned Toad, Texas"-- Provided by publisher