The Mystery of Chaco Canyon

DaVinci Code meets the Wild West. Set against the historic background of the Civil War in the Southwest, four friends seek a fantastic treasure hidden in the unknown wilds where clues have been left by peoples long gone. They are pursued by Danites, Penitentes and Knights of the Golden Circle and assisted by mysterious native shamans and wanderers of strange origin. The clues are real, the solutions novel.

The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is an historical fiction, a mystery and a love story set against the background of the American Civil War in the Southwest. Ten years after the events described in Massacre at Point of Rocks, Dan and Roque joined by Doña Loca and Jicarilla Apache, Peregrino Rojo, are set on a quest by a dying Masonic brother. Along the way they must solve the real mysteries of the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, Chaco Canyon, Chimney Rocks, Rough Hurech’s Grave and the Silverbell Artifacts. The mysteries are real, the solutions novel. The enemies who pursue them are real, the battles are real. The DaVinci Code meets the Wild West. They didn't ask me why I write historical fiction (westerns), so I don't have to lie. My answer would have reflected all the elements shared by other Western Writers. I was born, though I seldom admit it, near New York City, and dropped off on an Indian Reservation in New Mexico to grow up in a land stuck in the 19th century. I loved it and still do.

Doug Hocking grew up on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in the Rio Arriba (Northern New Mexico). He attended reservation schools and an Ivy League prep school. Doug enlisted in Army Intelligence out of high school and worked in Taiwan, Thailand and at the Pentagon. Returning home he studied Social Anthropology (Ethnography) and then returned to the Army as an Armored Cavalry officer (scout) completing his career by instructing Military Intelligence lieutenants in the art of war. He has earned a master’s degree with honors in American History and completed field school in Historical Archaeology. He has worked with allied officers and taught at Cochise College. He is now an independent scholar residing in southern Arizona near Tombstone with his wife, dogs, and a feral cat. He is on the board of the Southern Chapter of the Arizona Historical Society and of Westerners International and is Sheriff of the Bisbee Corral of the Westerners. He began writing a few years ago and has published in Wild West, True West, Buckskin Bulletin and Roundup Magazine. His books include Massacre at Point of Rocks and Mystery of Chaco Canyon