Spirit of the Snake - Tapa blanda

This is the story of Buck Landers, a veteran of the Civil War who comes to Texas after four long years of death, the loss of friends and the Tennessee home where he was raised. He has become hard, cold and calloused, lines of age crossing his young face from having seen and done too much. In Texas, he meets a young lady, one who offers the promise of a future. But she loses her life to men with no morals, and no conscience. Landers is left to die. He recovers and pursues the men to exact his revenge while becoming known as a gunfighter. The memory of his loss still haunts him, but an encounter with thieves, a snake bite and the curative powers of an Indian medicine man change his life forever, allowing him to break from his past. The story is based on history, its pages filled with the characters taken from district court records and history of 1866-68 Texas, a time when there were great dangers and greater opportunities.

Mark Engebretson is an award-winning journalist, photographer, and newspaper editor, who was raised in the Palo Pinto Mountain country of North Central Texas, the "Cradle of the Cattle Industry." His work, including both fiction and non-fiction, has been published nationally and he has been a contributing writer and photographer for the Associated Press. He is currently the managing editor of a weekly newspaper in North Central Texas. He has also published THE GOLDEN AMULET, another engaging western novel with a twist.