The product of four years of traveling and research through Kansas, Colorado, and Texas by author P.A. Ritzer, Seven Ox Seven Part One: Escondido Bound is the first volume of a western trilogy. Opening at the meeting of two cowboys, Luke Stuart and Tom Schurtz, during the height of the 1877 cattle-trade season, Seven Ox Seven draws the reader into a partnership between the cowboys and Luke's devout wife Elizabeth, with the goal of establishing a ranch at the edge of the Staked Plains, the Llano Estacado, recently (if not completely) vacated by the Comanche. Their determination will be tested in challenge after challenge, and their goal is shrouded by a host of mysterious happenings. A dramatic epic unfolds, richly flavored and brought to life with keen historical accuracy.