Sandi Ault

Former Taoseña and current Coloradoan Sandi Ault writes about the Land of Enchantment in her Wild Mystery series, which revolves around Taos-based Jamaica Wild, a resource protection agent for the Bureau of Land Management. Ault’s gutsy Jamaica finds spiritual solace in northern New Mexico’s still-remote terrain, where she patrols public lands on horseback to protect forested areas, and solves environmental mysteries. In the fourth Wild Mystery, Wild Penance (Berkley, 2010), Jamaica sees a body on a cross falling from the Río Grande Gorge Bridge, which leads her to investigate an obscure Catholic sect,  Los Penitentes, as Ault explains to Wolf Schneider.

 

Q: Tell me about your connection to New Mexico. When did you live in Taos?

In the 1990s. My husband, Tracy, and I were married in the Taos courthouse on a winter solstice. New Mexico really resists time and change! I like that about it. You can still see what the land was like before it was developed, and what the cultures are like.

In Wild Penance, Jamaica goes night riding in the rugged backcountry north of Chimayó, on BLM land, looking for illegal fence-cutters and trespassers. Did you go night riding there to get those vivid descriptions?

I have done night riding. But when I rode with the BLM rangers, it was only during the day, because I had to have administrative approval. When they have criminal activity, like defacing the petroglyphs or outbuildings, they do post rangers at night, and they keep radio silence so they can catch whoever’s doing it.

You start Wild Penance with a death at the Río Grande Gorge Bridge, near Taos, the second-highest cantilever truss bridge in the United States.

Yeah, there used to be a lot of bungee jumping there. Now it’s base-jumping, with a parachute. It’s also a magnet for suicides.

You write about some secretive rituals conducted by the Penitentes, but also about their gentler sayings, like “Ayuda a otros y Dios te ayudará,” or “Help others and God will help you.” Is that a real saying?

Yeah, it is. I was trying to go for some balance. They really do care for their communities, and there is a real strong brotherhood among the Hermanos.

Jamaica performs at a sort of charity strip show at the Golden Gecko nightclub, near Taos.

It’s a lingerie fashion show! [Laughs]

Is the Gecko real—or maybe modeled on the Sagebrush, which is popular with country dancers?

Somebody I interviewed told me about this club where the movie stars and film crews used to go in the 1950s and ’60s, and I thought that was intriguing. It’s kind of a little modeled on the Sagebrush, but at the Sagebrush you have to duck the dancers, because they whirl around the floor.

Where did you get the inspiration for Jamaica?

I was teaching a writing class at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and I had the class try to imagine: If they could have five lives, what would they be? I made a list myself: cowgirl, because I love horseback riding; monk, because of the studying I had begun with my medicine teacher; chef, author . . . and I can’t remember the fifth. I decided to combine them when I made Jamaica. Chef I decided to ditch—I didn’t want to do dishes! [Laughs]

How do you keep readers guessing till the ends of your novels?

I’ll do a 20-page treatment with key scenes, and where I’ll fit in background information and clues. It’s a structure—like seeing it on film.

Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor at Southwest Art.

 

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