The Haunted Mesa

by Louis L’Amour

First published 1987

Amazon

4.4(2,351)

Set in the late twentieth-century Southwest, with a speculative mystery rooted in the history and archaeology of Ancestral Puebloan communities, The Haunted Mesa is a novel built around the pressures of its historical setting. The Navajo called them the Anasazi, the "ancient enemy," and their abandoned cities haunt the canyons and plateaus of the Southwest. For centuries the sudden disappearance of these people baffled historians. Summoned to a dark desert plateau by a desperate letter from an old friend, renowned investigator Mike Raglan is drawn into a world of mystery, violence, and explosive revelations. Crossing a border beyond the laws of man and nature, he will learn of the astonishing world of the Anasazi and discover the most extraordinary frontier ever encountered

The historical background is Native American History. L’Amour uses practical details of travel, work, weather, weapons, distance and local authority to make the setting more than a backdrop. The result combines fast-moving adventure with a strong sense of how isolation, weak institutions and rapid economic change could shape individual choices.