Heart's Blood: A Novel

By Elizabeth Zinn

Heart's Blood mixes the epic vistas of the border with its cruel social realities of drug trafficking and human smuggling. It begins in the early 1970s with the book's central character, Tyler McNeil, leaving behind his itinerant life to begin a difficult journey through unexpected parenthood, loss, love, and finally, peace in his old age.

A cast of colorful characters light up and change Ty's life. Mana, an abused, illiterate border crosser, shows up just long enough in his life to bear an infant daughter and then vanish. Ty makes the difficult decision to adopt and raise her orphaned child, Lita, and commits to life on his tumbledown ranch on the border. But a vicious leader of the local drug cartel, called Blanco, and his wife, Marcela Beltran, covet Lita (and later the daughter Lita bears as an adult), because Blanco is Lita's biological father. Tyler's own existence becomes further complicated when he meets Claire, the love of his life with a gypsy soul and a stumbling heart. And CJ, his son from a brief early marriage rejects him when he learns of his real parentage. These complex family ties keep him off balance until the very end, in a saga filled with love, loss, humor and pain.

With its Western setting and cavalcade of personalities, Heart's Blood will warm the heart of fans of modern western dramas. Though set in the scenic and dangerous desert of southern Arizona, the novel transcends its place and time. Heart's Blood blends the complexities of life on the border with the universal themes of blood relationships and secrets kept across generations. It's a rich story that readers of all backgrounds will enjoy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1542748526
• ISBN13: 9781542748520
• Release Date: March 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"