Midnight Cactus
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A restless London wife escapes to the Arizona desert to find passion and danger in an “impassioned blockbuster” of a love story (The Independent).
Jumping at the chance to spend a year away from her claustrophobic marriage to a workaholic British developer, Alice Coleman takes her two small children to the American desert lands between Arizona and the Mexican border. But the unpredictable southwest has room for the dreams of more than one fugitive. There’s Benjamin, the kindly Mexican caretaker of an abandoned mining town; the desperate immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border; and the laconic cowboy Henry Duval, whose rugged charms are as irresistible to Alice, as his secrets are dark. But when Alice’s husband arrives, the sun-scorched sanctuary turns dangerous. Now 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.
Both a perilous love story and a compelling exploration of the tension between unrealized ambitions and the pull of family, Midnight Cactus is an “absorbing . . . lively meditation on how far people will go to escape the past” (Entertainment Weekly).
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.
