The Spanish name, "Mal Pais," literally translates to "Bad Country" in English. When Josh Sanders retired from the police department in Billings, Montana and purchased land near Mal Pais, Costa Rica in 1987, he planned to begin a second career as a gentleman rancher. He couldn't imagine why a tropical paradise on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica would rate such a name. By the end of the first rainy season on his new property, after slogging through six months of mud, he began to see why Spanish colonists in the 17th century might have chosen the name. He realized that rain and mud were minor inconveniences when he became embroiled in a perplexing murder investigation and the unsavory remnants of the Nicaraguan civil war. Jennifer Walther, the daughter of the slain gringo George Walther, stumbled into the same mess with no intention of settling in Costa Rica. She and Josh were thrown together by circumstances but fell in love.