History! Mystery! Murder!
Looking for family among strangers, a woman finds that seeking out distant relatives can be deadly and that some Arizona mysteries are better left buried!
PILAR SAGASTA steps into a world of cunning deception when she travels to Arizona to connect with her late grandfather's sister, Virginia. Eager for details of their Mexican history before the family fled the political turbulence in 1916, Pilar realizes quickly that she made a mistake. Far from the loving relatives she envisioned, she finds a group of odious characters who doubt her motives and want nothing more than to drive her away.
When Virginia dies suddenly, Pilar takes that as her cue to leave. But when she agrees to investigate after another relative is murdered, she discovers her family has a dubious past enmeshed in unsolved Arizona robberies, foreign politics, missing loot, and murder.
Secrets buried deep in the past reach to the present generation and obscure motives in a family where no one is who they seem and everyone has a secret to hide.
Cathy Ann Rogers has a penchant for creating literary characters who imitate reality through their skewed sense of justice as well as their bittersweet victories.
Cathy attributes the shaping of her writer’s prowess to her solitary upbringing as an only child. Armed with a library card from her neighborhood branch in Cincinnati, she spent her childhood absorbed in suspenseful scenes depicted within the fiction of Christie and Conan-Doyle. Simultaneously, she built a mental library of potential plots while eavesdropping on the conversations of adults who discussed everything from Hollywood to History. The result of these blended influences is her fascination with plot twists and multi-generational storytelling in novels.
Following the dictates of her left-brain, Cathy pursued a degree and graduate certificate in accounting, establishing a tax and bookkeeping service for entrepreneurs.
Cathy weaves her tales from her Arizona desert townhome in the company of her Bichon Frises, Whitney and Sophie.
During my research into the Mexican Revolution, I discovered the women known as the Soldaderas. While we have all seen movie renditions of frontier women taking up guns and getting into the fields to temporarily replace their men , I could not recall an actual account of women present on the battlefield.
Their actions were logical. It was not uncommon in those days that battles were lost when men abandoned their army to be with their families.
There are those who say the success of the Mexican Revolution was due to the Soldaderas supporting efforts though they did not receive public recognition for their sacrifices.
Book Excerpt
Here Lies Buried
"One thing I will tell you, mija, is that Josefina Paralelos was the gentlest and the bravest woman. Tender to her family. Ruthless to her enemies. No, I take that back, your bisabeula was the bravest person I have ever known. If you want to look up something from our past, look up the Soldaderas. When my father and uncle fought in the Revolution, she was there with the other wives and single women doing what they could to help. She rode a horse on an astride saddle, concocted homemade medicines for the soldiers' injuries, cooked over an open fire, as well as being a quick draw with the two ivory-handled pistolas she carried in two bandolier holsters. She did all of this in the middle of battle."
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