Veil of Sand

    After her boyfriend leaves her for another woman young redheaded Nola decides to find a job which will take her far away from the city and that happens to be a job as assistant park ranger out in the isolated California desert. The head ranger, Vance Fletcher, is not happy to see that a woman has been hired for the job but as the park is understaffed he gives Nola a chance. However his wife Carobeth is ecstatic to have another women out in the lonely desert. Besides the couple and their three little boys, assistant ranger Miguel is the only other person in the vicinity.

    On her first day of duty Nola is tasked with checking on all the park campsites. While she drives on the long stretches of road she notices smoke from a fire in the distance. Knowing that desert campfires are illegal, and wanting to show Vance she is eager to do a good job, she foolishly takes the park jeep off road into the desert sand. The smoke is farther than she had anticipated and after a substantial distance into the desert the jeep gets stuck. Nola sets out on foot determined to complete her goal but again misjudges the distance.

    Exhausted and thirsty Nola finally comes upon the smoke and sees it's coming from a chimney of an old shack. The inhabitant being a handsome man with a red beard that she had seen walking along the road the day of her arrival. He gets her some water, chides her for her foolishness, and introduces himself as Todd Marshal, a painter. He helps Nola get the jeep unstuck and she leaves with a crush on him.

    Back at the park headquarters Vance has been struggling with two problems: the poaching of the local big horn sheep and a persistent grass fire threatening to destroy the sheep's grazing land. Could the latter be a intentional cover for the former? Nola is worried that Todd Marshall could be involved in the poaching but decides to keep her suspicious to herself until she can get to know him better.

    While working in the park office one day a gorgeous woman named Erin Marshal comes in looking for Todd and Nola's heart breaks to think that Todd is married. However clearly Todd did not tell Erin his location, could that mean they're separated?

    Upon her next visit to the old shack Nola doesn't get around to inquiring about Todd's relationship statues and when he embraces and kisses her Nola is in heaven. That is until she remembers Erin, at which point she shoves Todd back and declares her hate for him as she runs off.

    One day Nola is tasked with collecting the camping fees from the different park campgrounds. As she approaches a luxury RV at one, the door is open and she sees Todd and Erin inside hugging. Instantly in tears she flees with Todd rushing after her.

    She gets on her mule, which Vance gave her in place of the jeep after the incident, and rides off into the desert directionless. Once she calms herself she realizes she has no idea where she is, she has no compass, and almost no water. She wanders with the mule, sharing what little water she has left before resting in the shadow of a bolder. Exhausted she falls asleep and awakes to find her mule has wandered off out of sight. Trying not to panic she begins walking in the hopes that she can make it to Todd's shack. A storm has been hanging in the distance and Nola barely scrambles out of a canyon before being drowned in a flash flood.

    Nola is relieved when she sees someone in the distance and frantically calls to them but as she runs closer she sees a shot big horn sheep at his feet; he's the poacher. Or rather one of them and his partner soon appears from behind a bolder.

    The two men discuss murdering Nola but when a torrent of rain begins to fall they grab her and run for cover in the old shack. The two go inside while leaving Nola on the patio at which time she manages to sneakily toss her red handkerchief on top of the roof, a signal for the search and rescue team who will be looking for her.

    Once the rain lets up the two, whose discussion has turned to whispers, force Nola into the shack when suddenly the sound of a helicopter is heard. The men position themselves under a window with their single gun drawn and don't notice when Nola slips out the other window.

    Todd, who was in the helicopter along with Vance and an officer, grabs Nola and pulls her to safety while the poachers are arrested. Nola confronts Todd about Erin and he informs her Erin is his sister. The two decide to marry. The end.

- Nola has no business being a park ranger. Multiple times she gets emotional and runs off into the desert aimlessly. And despite always barely escaping danger she keeps doing it.

- Nola's ex boyfriend, the one she's leaving the city over, turns out to be the head of the poachers and Erin was the woman he left Nola for. I thought this was rather stupid. The guy was just some dumb up-and-coming real estate agent that Nola did all the work for and now he's suddenly involved in big time poaching so far from home? Nah, I don't buy it.

- It was obvious Erin was Todd's sister, such a cliché but I can't be mad. After all this is a 100-something page book published by Avalon, the company that pumped them out as fast as they could write them. I didn't expect this to be a classic that is studied in high school lit classes century from now. And that's why...

    I don't think it was that bad. Like most Avalon books I was eager to keep reading and find out what happens. I probably won't remember it as anything special but it certainly kept me entertained.

    (I read this book from Archive's lending library which is where the picture for this post comes from, albeit with a little editing.)