When a drunken tourist asks local rancher the simple question "are you a real cowboy?", her inadvertently existential query launches Cole on a journey of self discovery and intrigue neither he nor the reader can anticipate. Born and raised on a cattle ranch along California's idyllic Central Coast, Cole has "cowboy'd" all his life; but he has also earned a Phd in intellectual history and has resolved to leave ranching for a job teaching at a prestigious university. When the untimely death of a young cowboy implicates his family, Cole is dragged back into their struggling ranch business and forced to confront hidden secrets. As the mystery unfolds, dark forces compel Cole to confront who he really is. Written with keen attention to detail, Santa Ynez opens a window on another world, the world of modern ranchers and farmers, sandwiched between modern Los Angeles and San Francisco, struggling to preserve a way of life and its values against the forces of modernity.