Bone Horses

2014 WILLA Award for Contemporary Fiction
Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction, New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
Silver Medalist, 2014 IPPY Book Awards
Southwest Books of the Year "Good Read"




New York school teacher Charlotte Lambert is
practical and predictable, and never allows life to veer off course. Until she
comes to New Mexico. During one summer in Agua Dulce, a village haunted by a
phantom herd of wild horses and where ravens embody the spirits of ancestors,
Charlotte's world is upended as she unearths the details of her mother's
forbidden love affair, chilling murder, and courageous last act of redemption.
Pursued by a madman hell-bent on killing her, Charlotte finds shelter, romance,
and her own misplaced soul at the desert camp of a surprisingly sophisticated
cowboy, and learns how love in its myriad forms is the only path to lasting
salvation.


"An exquisitely beautiful and haunting read. "Bone
Horses" is a novel of large ambitions and sweep, with vivid characters and
big American themes, written in crisp, sculptured prose." Douglas Preston,
author of "Two Graves" & "The Monster of Florence"



"A fine mystery, with complex twists and turns. "Bone Horses" is
also a paean to the land and especially to its rare wild horses who symbolize
all that is wonderful about our high desert country and all that needs our love
and protection." John Nichols, author of "The Milagro Beanfield
War" & "The Nirvana Blues"





"In the exquisite novel, "Bone Horses", Lesley
Poling-Kempes grandly creates the landscape of New Mexico as a living character
- vital, enduring and full of magic. As the geography of the American Southwest
comes alive on the pages, the geography of the heart is revealed to be far more
than muscle and bone. This is a story of what truly knits us together - family,
history, enduring friendships - served up in luminous language and unforgettable
story-telling." Mary E. Mitchell, author of "Love in Complete
Sentences" & "Starting Out Sideways"



""Bone Horses" unfolds like a desert sunrise--lifting from the
Southwest landscape with a well-crafted storyline that keeps the reader on the
path tracking romance, family legends, unsolved murders, buried bones, and
elusive wild horses. And, like "Bone Horses'" heroine Charlotte, I
found myself not wanting to leave." Page Lambert, author of "In
Search of Kinship"





"A riveting read and thriller with no shortage of twists and turns
everywhere, "Bone Horses" is a strong pick that proves the ability to
keep the pages turning all the way through." The Midwest Book Review



Lesley Poling-Kempes is the award-winning author of five books about the American Southwest, including the bestseller "The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West" and "Ghost Ranch." Her work has won the Zia Award for Excellence, and her first novel "Canyon of Remembering" was a Western Writers of America Spur Award finalist. For more about Lesley's books visit her website lesleypoling-kempes.net.