Little Rains Paperback - 2003

From the publisher

Little Rains explores the myths and realities that define the contemporary rural West. It is a haunting novel of loss and redemption, secrets and revelations, the hard labor of growing up, and the struggle to stave off the modern world from one of the last bastions of the American West. Hard as barbed wire and embittered, Truman "Tru" Pierce casts his shadow over the rock hard earth he inherited and those who would protect him. Eighteen year old JD Mitchell longs to escape the drudgery of his small hometown and becomes a hand on his uncle's ranch. Like Tru, JD's dreams for the future are weighted by his past, but reluctantly he learns from the odd assortment of eccentrics on the ranch: Linc, a hard and weathered veteran cowhand; JD's aunt, the strangely devoted Jesse, haunted by a dark secret that JD may have the power to exorcise; and Santos, a Mestizo, who wades the Rio Grande carrying a broken-down fighting rooster and dreams of fortune. All are caught within the maelstrom of Tru's obsession, and JD learns that mistakes are sometimes paid for in blood and bruises and the terrible pain of silence. As stark and gritty as the southwest Texas landscape, Little Rains chronicles one of the final tragedies of the American rangeland-the demise of the independent cattleman.