an journalist Luke Jackson longs for a story to put him back on the front page of The New Mexican, Santa Fe's historic daily newspaper. That story comes when he ventures north to cover a land grant protest in the state's pastoral and predominately Hispanic region. The protest leaders want to reclaim grazing rights given to their ancestors by the Spanish and Mexican governments several hundred years earlier, but now lost. Those rights were wrongly ignored, they contend, when the present-day Southwest, including California, became part of the United States in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty ended the war between the United States and Mexico. Rather than remaining with the original grantees, large sections of the land were grabbed by the railroad companies carving their way to the West Coast. he Hispanic community, more hungry and desperate than ever for land to graze their growing flocks, take up arms and occupy the land. A standoff with authorities ensues and Luke finds himself caught in the middle of a fight over land rights with roots deep in the history of the American Southwest that takes all he has to get out alive and write the story of a lifetime. A suspenseful literary thriller set in a remote and exotic corner of the American Southwest, The Ridge will put you on the edge of your seat and keep you there. Includes Readers Guide.