Bed of Roses

Readers charmed by Paisley's fanciful Basket of Wishes will find the same sparkling writing and funny characterization in her latest historical set in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. Sawyer Donovan is suffering from amnesia when he stumbles across the hideout of Zafiro Maria Quintana. Zafiro inherited many things from her father, but chief among them was guardianship of his multifarious band of geriatric outlaws: deaf 73-year-old Lorenzo; moonshine-guzzling Maclovio; and Pedro, a Saint Peter the Apostle wannabe. Then there are the hangers-on like Azcuar, an ex-prostitute who, at 82, believes she is still in her prime; 71-year-old Tia, who is convinced that Sawyer is her long-lost little boy; a bed-hogging chicken; a pet cougar; and Zafiro herself, who constantly fractures idioms by saying things like, ""my ears are telling lies"" when she means, ""I can't believe my ears."" The love story between Sawyer and Zafiro is a good conventional yarn, but it is the charming and eccentric Quintana gang that takes it to a higher level. (June)