Midnight Cactus - Softcover

Pollen, Bella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802170315 ISBN 13: 9780802170316

Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat, 2006

Synopsis

The best-selling author of Hunting Unicorns returns with a stirring and suspenseful tale of love and the quest for freedom, vividly set in the wild lands between Arizona and the Mexican border. On the run from her claustrophobic marriage in London, Alice Coleman moves her two small children to the American desert hoping to find the solitude she craves but hadn’t thought possible. But the vast and unruly southwest has room for the dreams of more than one fugitive from Benjamin, an abandoned mining town’s Mexican caretaker, to the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border, to the laconic cowboy Duval, who Alice finds herself falling for. What seemed idyllic turns deadly as Alice must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to preserve not only her freedom, but Benjamin and Duvall’s as well. Building to a blistering climax, Midnight Cactus is both a perilous love story and a compelling exploration of the tension between unrealized dreams and the pull of family.

About this title

About the Author:

Bella Pollen was brought up in the USA before moving to England. Formerly a fashion designer, she now writes full time and lives in London with her husband and four children.

From Publishers Weekly:

Restless and unfulfilled, Alice Coleman jumps at the chance to spend a year away from London and her officious, workaholic developer husband, Robert. Accompanied only by her young children, Jack and Emmy, Alice arrives in Temerosa, Ariz., a ghost town her husband bought, to oversee the renovation of the decrepit property into a resort. Unprepared for life in the remote desert community, Alice finds herself immersed in a harsh climate filled with deadly wildlife, illegal immigrants, immigrant traffickers and vigilante border guards. The construction crew working on her expansive property, she suspects, are illegals, as is the maid she hires in a fit of "wretched middle class guilt." Meanwhile, Alice is drawn into a flirtation with handsome local crew leader Henry Duval, whose rugged charm covers his own dark secrets. Robert joins the family in Temerosa and gets sucked into a murder investigation involving Henry, and things get dire. Pollen (Hunting Unicorns) creates a scorching landscape and a large, finely drawn cast, and her portrayal of the pressure-cooker atmosphere along the border is notable for its lack of preachiness. The ongoing immigration debate can't hurt sales potential. (Jan.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0802170315
• ISBN 13: 9780802170316
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 436