I expected The Outlaw and The Lady to be not much different from any other Western romance. After all, how many such books have an outlaw for a hero and a lady for a heroine? He’s a bitter fugitive bent on revenge; she’s the innocent woman he mistakenly abducts. That they are to fall in love during her captivity isn’t exactly the most original premise out there. This is my first Lorraine Heath novel, and I’d no idea that she has a reputation for deft plotting and characterization, and scenes so moving you’ll go quietly to pieces.

Barely halfway through the book, I was a believer. The hero turns out to be one of those rare, endearing characters you’re bound to remember for a quite a while, and his counterpart has a preordained slot in the Special Heroines Special Title Listing.

In Fortune, Texas in 1891, a man emerges from the bank he’s just robbed, bumping into a woman taking a midnight walk. Fearing that she will alert the authorities as to his identity, he rides off with her against her will. Too late he realizes that she couldn’t have matched his face with the notorious outlaw known only as Lee Raven. Why not? Because Angela Bainbridge is blind.

Lee and the rest of his Mexican family were victims of racial prejudice; by the orders of a man named Vernon Shelby, Lee’s father and brother were murdered, his sister was raped, and their home was burned. Lee is wanted by the authorities for killing Shelby’s son, and for raiding banks in which his enemy has made a deposit. It is after such a raid that he encounters Angela – a woman he comes to love but whom he knows he can never build a life with.

Each scene that follows has just enough provocative information to keep you reading, drawing you inexorably into the characters’ lives. It’s hard to spot any holes in the plot, even with the shocking twist that takes place two-thirds into the book. This impressed me, as did the credible way that everything falls into place at the end.

Meanwhile, it’s refreshing to read about a tortured hero whose painful past isn’t artificially tacked on to justify his toughness and inscrutability. While Lee Raven does come with the requisite I-can-never-be-good-enough-for-her moments, which thankfully the author doesn’t rub in your face, he has a number of remarkable qualities. Since I can’t expound on these without treading on spoiler territory, suffice it to say that he is a special hero (I’m not being very helpful, I know!). His true identity is the biggest surprise of all.

The book is also made more moving by a heroine who literally can’t see. Angela has adapted remarkably with the loss of her eyesight, which was due to high fever when she was twelve. Her resourcefulness saves her from falling into the irritating “sheltered miss” stereotype. The parts told through her point of view are particularly poignant, and it is here that Ms. Heath distinguishes herself as a storyteller. The reader sees the world as experienced by a blind person, and discovers how it might be to fall in love with a man whose face you can’t see. The moment Lee finally lets Angela touch his face – so she could picture him in her mind – is truly one of the most stirring scenes in romance. (Angela’s blindness also allows a Big Secret to build up in the background, which some readers may deem unfair, especially at the time of revelation. Personally however, I enjoyed the ride.)

A couple of minor things prevented this book from being a keeper for me. I usually grow impatient when the characters continue to quibble despite their attraction to each other. Some authors have a knack for not making this too irritating, especially when it’s unavoidable in the story. Although Ms. Heath is one such author, Angela’s initial petulant reaction to Lee still bordered on the clichéd for me. Also, it’s obvious even in the first few chapters that several novels precede The Outlaw and The Lady. It’s populated by characters who’ve found true love, which lends it an air of unreality – everyone else is too happy. While this book can stand alone, you’ll probably end up wanting to read the other books in the series, if you haven’t already. Judging from the quality of Ms. Heath’s latest work, however, that’s not such a bad idea.