The Mysterious Rider by Grey Zane is a novel about the love and happiness that are the main goals of human life.
The story tells us about life of Columbine, a young girl with kind heart who never knew what the hate is. She loved life and everybody liked her, especially the rancher Bellounds, a man who was like a father for her through all her life. Columbine found out that she is not his daughter when she was 19. The rancher had told her about that and also he said that she will marry his son Jack, who will come home after being away (he was in jail but Columbine didn’t know that). Columbine didn’t like Jack because he was cruel and selfish since his childhood, but father always loved him and forgave him everything, so he wanted him to marry the best girl he knew because she will be the one who will make him happy: “Jack, she's shy an' strange, an' deep, too. If you ever win her heart you'll be richer than if you owned all the gold in the Rockies”.
Unfortunately, no one asked Columbine if she wants this marriage, she never spoke her mind because it was her debt to do as Bellounds asks her because she owed him everything. But Columbine was in love with Wilson Moore, a young hunter on the rancho, and Wilson also loved her, despite this, they couldn’t be together. The young couple had to hide their feelings because there was no way for them to be happy together. Jack was very jealous, he considered Columbine was his property and he was going crazy every time he saw them together. One day he attacked Wilson with knife and almost killed him. The new hunter of the rancho Bent Wade was the one who saved and cured him. Bent Wade was a jack-of-all-trades, and his kind heart and everybody wondered how he got the reputation of Hell-Bent Wade. But Bent Wade never considered himself as a good man, he felt a guilt for what he had done in his past and how he lost his daughter.
When he came to work to the White Slides Rancho and saw Columbine he understood that she was his daughter because she looked like her mother, so he tried to do everything to become a friend for her, he helped her, loved her and cared about her. He knew that he ought not to tell her the truth but he can be like a father and mother for her never felt lonely. His support was essential for Columbine and since he came into her life she knew that she was not alone. Wade died in the fight with Jack Bellounds so died Jack and just after his death she found out that he was her father. She was speechless, it was too hard for her to realize that her father died and she couldn’t help him. She will never be the daughter for him, but she will always be his daughter and she will live her life with honor because her father taught her that: “I will have faith and hope and love, for I am his daughter”.
Wilson Moore came back to White Slides and made a proposal to Columbine. Bellounds was happy for them because he realized that nothing will separate these two because they are in love and he was happy for them.
