The Second Milagro by Linda Rainwater

About the book

A deadly mine cave-in at Real de Catorce, Mexico, changes Patricia Morelos's life forever. As the widow of silver mogul Tomas Morelos, and owner of the mine, she must deal with the disaster even as it is overshadowed by personal tragedy. Her only child, seventeen-year-old-Max, has been kidnapped in Mexico.

Patricia leaves Washington, D.C., and goes to Mexico, in the company of her blind friend, Rachel Davis, and becomes the target of corrupt officials in league with a most trusted employee, Jim Mainland.

Desperate, Patricia turns to her late husband's step-brother, Miguel Ramirez, whom she once loved. When their relationship was destroyed eighteen years earlier, Miguel returned to Mexico to champion the poor. He did not know Patricia was pregnant with Max, his son.

While Miguel works against Jim Mainland, he arranges for a young man, Daniel Cortez, to take Patricia to Real de Catorce. She sets out on a journey of discovery, danger and confession.

Her darkest secret is ripped open when she meets Carmina, the woman Daniel calls madre. In what seems to her another life, Patricia knew Carmina when they both cleaned house for Thomas Morelos. Patricia was fifteen and pregnant with her father's child. Camina had helped deliver the baby and had told Patricia that it died. Before Patricia is able to resolve if Daniel's resemblance to her father is real, Miguel takes his place escorting her into the mountain.

Miguel has a plan to secret Patricia away from harm, but they are ambushed and have to run for their lives. They take refuge in an abandoned hacienda and the desert night draws them together. The love they once shared is revived, and Patricia tells Miguel about her father, her baby, and Daniel. She does not tell him about Max.

When Miguel goes for help, Patricia finds papers in his pack that make her doubt him, and she heads out on her own. She hides among Mexicans camping by the road, but Daniel finds her and takes her to a cabin where he has brought Rachel. She and Rachel escape when miners attack the cabin. Disguising themselves, they arrive in Real with pilgrims bringing silver pieces, called milagros, for the miracles they ask of St. Francis.

Jim Mainland, betrayed by Juan Catera, the "garbage czar," and other corrupt officials, is brought to Real to convince Patricia to sign over the mines to Catera or he will kill all of them. Jim's attempt to get her signature fails.

To flush out Catera, the army releases Max at the festival. Irate miners, determined to kill the Morelos heir, are stunned when Patricia reveals her last secret, that Max is not Tomas Morelos's son, but the son of their hero, Miguel Ramirez. A shot meant for Max hits Daniel. Catera alludes the army, but Jim Mainland dies in a tunnel cave-in.

As everyone gathers around Daniel, he gives Patricia a tiny silver boy, a milagro, to give St. Francis in thanks for Patricia's second miracle, her son, Daniel.

About the author

As Thoreau said, we have more than one life to lead. Books have been the thread that has tied my different lives together. My love for words goes back to elementary school when I won an award for reading the most books one year. My need to learn as much as I could from them led me to accumulate degrees until I had a Ph.D. A natural progression was to impart my love for literature to others. As a professor of English for seventeen years, I taught everything from Shakespeare to Eliot. Leaving that profession, I traveled and gathered words and experiences needed for my next life, as a writer. The Second Milagro is my second novel. I am working on a third, Framing the Truth.

Originally from Alabama, I now live in Virginia. During one of my lives I had two sons. One became an actor, the other a minister, attesting to my diversity as a mother. I also have four children I call my own, since marrying their father, my knight in shinning armor. The Mount Vernon Writers' group keeps my pen working while my cats keep me company, making writing my best life yet.