Sun Racer

Blake Riley has one more summer vacation before she graduates high school, and she gets to spend it with Mr. and Mrs. Finn, an adventurous couple from her church who personally know an archaeologist.

They are taking her out to the wide open desert of New Mexico, where they will meet up with Dr. Fenton Briggs to investigate a mysterious pueblito that was once occupied by a Navajo tribe. It is the biggest trip she has ever been on, and Blake is eager to spend the week learning about Navajo culture and painting the beautiful desert landscape.

Things get off to a rough start when they arrive at the dig site to find it full of armed guards, hired by the clever and dangerous British sponsor, Raymond Kensington.

Most of the workers are college students who don’t think much of a kid like Blake showing up with her eager attitude and unbridled optimism.

A group of rough looking treasure hunters show no respect for the land, or the Navajo people, as they tear the ground up in search of gold they believe was left behind by the Spaniards.

As Blake tries to find fun on her own time by exploring, painting, and taking pictures, she ends up running into the angry and bitter guide who initially led the team out to the pueblito.

Just when she begins to think things could not be worse, she learns that there is a ghost haunting the hills around them, who screams and wails warnings down to them every night. Ghosts aren’t real, she tries to tell herself, so it must be a person. But how do they manage to vanish into the desert so quickly? And what are they warning them of? Who else is out there, watching their every move, waiting for the perfect time to strike?

What should have been an educational and adventurous time of learning about archaeology and Native American history turns into a tangled web of tension and high emotions. Lines are drawn in the sand as each group’s motives and intentions become clear.

Animosity grows beneath the sweltering New Mexico sun, and Blake knows it will not be long before an argument goes too far. It will take every bit of strength and faith for her to face her fears and survive. If she has some strength after that, she is determined to uncover the secrets that these peculiar Navajo ruins have to hide.