Can a student, desert recluse, and whitewater crew save themselves, Aztec treasures and an ancient pueblo battlefield from looters? The answer unfolds in Baldwin's first in the Relic series, a novel Readers' Favorite gives Five Stars, calling it an "engaging action... mystery" that "is clear, fluid and very detailed" and "well worth reading."
Reader's Favorite has awarded 5 Stars to each of his four "Relic" novels, calling Raptor Canyon "a hoot of an adventure." An avid backcountry hiker, canoer, and whitewater enthusiast, the author takes his readers on adventures in ancient lands that shape the motives and spirits of his characters.
A graduate of Wright State University and the University of Idaho School of Law, Baldwin has practiced law for more than 35 years. He began his career with a poverty law fellowship award on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, where he later became a staff attorney and then Executive Director of Wind River Legal Services, a legal aid program serving the Reservation and southeastern Wyoming. After successful civil rights and class action lawsuits, the Northern Arapaho Tribe hired him as in-house counsel from late 1988 to 1992, when he established a private firm that continues to represent the Tribe as well as individuals and other tribes in the Rocky Mountain West. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal, and other Federal, Tribal, and State Courts. He won the right of the Northern Arapaho Tribe to operate (and self-regulate) the full gamut of casino-style gaming without state control. He has successfully litigated First Amendment religious liberties, voting rights, Tribal sovereignty, and for environmental justice. He earned his private pilot's license in 1997.
A.W. Baldwin finished his first novel, Desert Guardian, in 2017. His second novel, Raptor Canyon, builds on a character introduced in Desert Guardian, a moonshining hermit living deep in the remote canyons of Utah. Sandstone monuments, sheer canyons, and startling vistas provide the unique settings for these thrillers. Adventure, mystery, and personal challenge combine in a world surreal in its scope and deeply rooted in American history.