When an orphaned French aristocrat must confront his estranged father, who means to kill him, he is shanghaied by Confederate pirates and cast into the backwoods of the Civil War, where he joins a band of notorious bushwhackers to survive.

THE BALLAD OF FRANCO LOCO is a historical western fiction/adventure and hero’s journey. Francois, an orphaned aristocrat in south France, discovers that his father, thought to be dead and who he’s never met, is being released from a Spanish prison but in the King’s service. His uncle receives this word from Francois’ mother, also whom he’s never met, but believes she is a Spanish prostitute that gave him up at birth. She is a woman of means apparently, and warns his uncle, fearing for her son’s safety, but her identity has not been revealed to him for his own protection and hers. Arrangements are made to have him taken out of the country. Francois’ father, a ruthless man, has a vested interest in killing his own son and has no qualms with it. But he will confront his father when he’s been made ready.