Chapultepec

From two-time Golden Spur winner Zollinger (Not of War Only) comes this rich historical romance set in Mexico in the 1860s. Kansan Jason James arrives in that young nation as a member of the French Foreign Legion in 1862, just as the French are preparing to overthrow the elected government of Benito Juarez and establish the Austrian monarch Maximilian as emperor. Jason fought in Mexico 15 years earlier with American forces, and events that occurred then at the eponymous ancient fortress haunt him still. The American, assisted by his unforgettable manservant, the dwarf Cipi, quickly rises to become a colonel in the Mexican Army, under sworn oath to the emperor; meanwhile, another Yank, Sarah Anderson, who has lived in Paris for years, arrives in the embattled country in order to settle her deceased brother's estate, a struggling silver mine. Sarah, a former schoolmate of Maximilian's wife, the new empress, is dragooned into becoming a member of the royal court even though her real sympathies lie with Juarez. Despite romantic entanglements with others, Jason and Sarah become involved as history erupts around them. Zollinger doesn't miss a trick, painting a striking portrait of a doomed monarchy and its historical personages while deftly moving his own fictional characters through a bounty of confrontations and conflicts. This is a grand historical treat that should put the author in the running for yet another Golden Spur. (Oct.)