The Rainbow Trail: also known as The Desert Crucible

Zane Grey

Sep 2014 · Riders Of The Purple Sage Book 2 · Dreamscape Media · Narrated by Michael Lackey

About this audiobook

Ten years after the events of Riders of the Purple Sage, John Shefford, a disillusioned preacher from Illinois travels to Arizona and takes refuge in a village controlled by polygamist Mormons hiding from the federal government. It's there Shefford learns the story of Fay Larkin: years ago, the infant Fay, along with Jane Withersteen and a gunslinger known as Lassiter, were trapped in Surprise Valley. Intrigued, Shefford decides to track Fay down. Originally published under the title The Rainbow Trail in 1915, it was re-edited and re-released in recent years as The Desert Crucible.

Ratings and reviews

How did I get through Jr High School without reading Zane Grey? Probably because sexism, and bigotry were not on our reading list. It's a good book in some ways, the sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage, and good for historical perspective. David Roberts included it in his SE Utah research so I did too to gain more depth about the area.