The Mesilla - The Two Valleys Saga: Book One is the first of a multi-volume historical fiction series that relives the ten years leading to the historically infamous murders of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain and his eight-year-old son. A fictional nephew to the Colonel, Jesus Messi, tells the story through his memoir thirty years after the murders as he attempts to 'make sense of it all' through writing. The first book is set in 1886 Las Cruces and only covers a few months of the ten-year saga as young Jesus gets to know the captivating Fountain family and settles into 'reading law.'
Jesus arrives in the Mesilla Valley with mixed emotions. He was too small and frail to work his father's fields near El Porvenir, Mexico but when the local padre's tutoring revealed Jesus's unending curiosity and fertile mind, Jesús's his mother writes her sister - Colonel Fountain's wife Mariana - about her son, the Colonel agrees to consider an apprenticeship 'reading law' and become a lawyer. Jesus struggles with being 'sent away' by his Mexican-Italian family as he participates in Fountain family activities and pranks in his coming-of-age story. He hears the Colonel's never-ending tales of his exploits as told around the campfire and at the family's 'hearth talks.' Jesus observes the Colonel's court cases – including the notorious Bronco Sue case - assists his uncle in court, gets lessons in politics, and begins to feel the stirrings of finding a mate. The Mesilla features the sites and events of the time including the Shalam Colony, the building of St. Genevieve's church, town baseball games, and more.
