cover image A Lady Follows

A Lady Follows

Holly Newman. Forge, $24.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-312-86871-0

Newman's debut chronicles the challenging trek of a spunky young widow from Missouri to Santa Fe in 1846. Following the death of her only child and her alcoholic, mentally unbalanced husband, sheltered New Orleans belle Carolina Harper, of American and Spanish-Mexican descent, decides to go to Santa Fe to care for her three motherless cousins. She hires Gerald Gaspard, a mountain man with a scarred face, to act as her guide. In a harsh and hazardous land, Carolina is forced to act heroically on several occasions and wins the admiration and respect of the stalwart Gaspard, who comes to mean a great deal more to her than a mere employee. Carolina recovers from a concussion after being thrown from her horse and even deals courageously with her violent, Anglo-hating uncle, Colonel Diego Navarro, when he tries to use her as a political pawn. Newman alternates third-person narration with Carolina's journal entries and somewhat flat discussions of the politics of the time, and the war with Mexico. While the terrain has been trod before, Newman manages to sustain action and excitement in this addition to the publisher's Women of the West series. (Feb.)