Cinco de Mayo, the Novel

During Mexico's War of Reform in 1860, Conservative Gen. Miguel Miramón and his army was responsible for some heinous crimes, many of them against innocent citizens. After the war, he escaped from Mexico aboard a French naval vessel as the war ended. Now, Miramón is about to return with his French backers. Many Mexican residents seek revenge against Miramón for what he did to their families. Thirty-two-year-old Alonso Torres is one of them. His father, Major Eugenio Torres, was killed in a massacre, and Alonso vows to avenge his father's death. Alonso has joined the mission of General Zaragoza as an undercover operative and works with Fernando Vargas and his sons to either capture or kill Miramón. Paloma Vargas is unaware that her family's stagecoach business is the cover for a Mexican spy network. The only girl in the family, she becomes suspicious when her four brothers mount up and leave town with Torres. Paloma follows them and finds herself suddenly committed as a guerilla fighter. She becomes a force to be reckoned with, and the colonel who heads the French contre-guérilla forces is outraged when he learns the person causing him major problems is a woman. He orders his men to find out who she is and to capture or kill her at any cost.