Meridian: A Novel of Kit Carson's West

Tenderfoot cartographer Bradford Stone rides with Kit Carson and John C. Fremont on the greatest adventure of westward expansion: Fremont's 1845 expedition from Colorado to California. Although Caron is Brad's idol, the two men develop a warm friendship as the famous scout teaches the greenhorn how to survive on the frontier. Fremont, brilliant, pompous, secretive and ambitious, proves to be less approachable. Indeed, once Brad and the other expeditioners arrive in California, they realize that Fremont has more on his mind than just mapping a few trails. Mexico and the U. S. are edging close to war, and Fremont intends to seize California as spoils. Brad witnesses Fremont's campaign of deception, skulduggery and bluff, confounding Mexicans and Americans alike. While Brad gets his political education from Fremont and his battlefield skills from Carson, his heart belongs to the beautiful Ana Barragan, the only daughter of a Yanqui-hating Mexican landowner; but their illicit love affair looks doomed from the start. Zollinger's seventh novel (after Chapultepec) is a richly detailed and colorful tapestry of history, adventure, discovery, romance and suspense. (June)