In the mid-1950s, America was flush with prosperity and saw an unbroken line of progress clear to the horizon, while the West was still very much wild.

Catherine Lemay is a young archaeologist on her way to Montana, with a huge task before her – a canyon 'as deep as the devil's own appetites.' Working ahead of a major dam project, she has one summer to prove nothing of historical value will be lost in the flood. From the moment she arrives, nothing is familiar – the vastness of the canyon itself mocks the contained, artefact-rich digs in post-Blitz London where she cut her teeth.

And then there's John H, a former mustanger and veteran of the U.S. Army's last mounted cavalry campaign, living a fugitive life in the canyon. John H inspires Catherine to see beauty in the stark landscape, and her heart opens to more than just the vanished past.

Painted Horses sends a dauntless young woman on a heroic quest, sings a love song to the horseman's vanishing way of life, and reminds us that love and ambition, tradition and the future often make strange bedfellows.

Malcolm Brooks