In 1687 A.D., Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit missionary, rode into the borderlands we now call northern Sonora and southern Arizona.  His assignment: spread the gospel to the native peoples – the Pimas and Papagos – in this amazing and beautiful land out on the very edge of civilization.  For twenty-four years the padre did so – with astounding vigor, resilience, and charity.                 

     In 1965, two and a half centuries after Kino’s death, the President of Mexico commissioned a team of scientists to locate his gravesite.  The search turned out to be a long, difficult, and fascinating one.              

      In a masterful interweaving of tales, Ben Clevenger’s The Far Side of The Sea combines the 17^th century story of Kino and his friend, Manje, a Spanish cavalry officer, as they encounter deadly Apache attacks, a bloody Pima rebellion, buried treasure, and the beautiful widow that Manje loves but cannot marry – with the modern-day account of the search for the padre’s burial site in northern Sonora.  Jorge Olvera, a young archaeologist from Mexico City, doggedly follows a trail of clues to the little village of Magdalena, where he finds what he believes to be Kino’s grave.  But how can he prove that these are the bones of the famous missionary?  Clevenger’s entertaining novel invites us along for the ride as Olvera solves the mystery of the grave while Kino and Manje find all the action, intrigue, and adventure they can handle on the hot, dusty frontier.