The Bone Trail by Nell Walton

Join Nell Walton, author of the mystery thriller The Bone Trail as she virtually tours the blogosphere in April 2011 on her first tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Nell Walton

Nell Walton is an avid horsewoman and also owns two wild horses, both of which came from a herd near Elko, NV. She is also the founder and managing editor of the online equestrian news magazine, The AllHorses Post (www.allpetspost.org/allhorsespost). She has degrees in journalism and biology from the University of Arkansas, spent many years as a professional journalist and worked as an intern for former President Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. She lives in East Tennessee on a small horse farm with her husband, four horses, one donkey, two cats and two dogs. The Bone Trail is her first novel.

Find her on Twitter, Facebook and at her blog The Bone Trail.

About The Bone Trail

Inspired by actual events, The Bone Trail is the story of investigative journalist and horsewoman, Kate Wyndham, who is sent to northern Nevada to do a story on the disappearance of two wild horse advocates. When Wyndham attempts to gain information from the FBI and local authorities she is stonewalled.

She turns to Jim Ludlow, a local rancher who lives on an Indian Reservation near where the advocates disappeared. Ludlow, a Shoshone Indian horse “whisperer” agrees to try to help Wyndham and they begin a search for answers that may cost them everything the hold dear – it may even cost them their lives.

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Read an Excerpt

On the afternoon of the last day of Lindy Abraham’s life, she stood leaning against an old Jeep Cherokee, once red, now faded to kind of a dusky umber, tapping her heel impatiently against a tire. She waited in the Nevada desert in the middle of June; it was hot, and her peach colored cotton tank top stuck unpleasantly in the hollow between her narrow shoulders. She reached into the Jeep and dug around in her cluttered purse until she found a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Pulling a cigarette free, she lit it, took a drag and exhaled a puff of smoke that hung in front of her face like a shroud. It is at least 109F, she thought, and while her long dead mother used to say of the heat in Georgia, ‘Well, it ain’t the heat so much as the humidity,’ Lindy knew that this desert heat today was just plain HOT. She felt like a cornmealed fish that had just hit the grease at a summer fish fry.The dry air had long lost the slightly herbal, earthy scent that comes with the desert morning. The flat plain, dotted here and there with low sagebrush, could be breathtaking at dawn, but now, at noon, it looked like the devil’s own playground. The mountains in the distance were now barely discernable through the heat shimmer coming off the dirty, salt colored sand.

The air conditioner in the Jeep had long since gone to the great A.C. cabin in the sky, so there was no relief to be gained by sitting in the idling vehicle. Lindy glanced into its interior. Julia Evans, her plump, cherub-faced friend, was still crouching miserably in the passenger’s seat with the door open, trying to convince herself that the small scrap of shade from the Jeep’s roof was actually helping to keep her a little cooler. Julia was very fair-skinned and pretty, with blue eyes and dark hair, and the sun was no friend to her. She had pulled her boots off in an attempt to cool off and rubbed the instep of each foot periodically with an ever-shrinking piece of ice from the cooler. Lindy’s, skinny, brittle frame, with its sun damaged skin, slightly crooked teeth, shoulder length blond hair and muddy brown eyes was a stark contrast. At first glance, Lindy struck people as very grim looking, but when she smiled (which was rare these days) her face completely changed and showed a bright gentleness that was startling.

What Reviewers Are Saying

“Although this book is written as fiction, those readers who keep track of what is happening to the American Mustang in our western states will recognize the “facts” in the story. This book is creative, well researched and written by someone who cares about what is happening to our wild horses. The story is one that the professional horseman can relate to and would have to agree that it is a job “well done.” There is truth, intrigue, human emotions, fantasy, and yes even a love story in this story … something for everyone.”