M. Juan Knecht

Five Seconds Too Long Lucinda is a woman who knows no fear and Charlie is a man who is quite familiar with it. These two reluctant soul mates have moved back to Lucinda's ancestral hacienda in Monterey to continue their adventures together in a violently changing Early California. One bright morning in 1880, pistol shots ring out. Joaquin, the local deputy and friend of Charlie, pursues and kills one of the gunfighters. However, the man he kills is the seventeen-year-old nephew of Adan Contreras, a powerful and mentally disturbed rancher. Now Adan Contrereas and his vigilante friends want to see Joaquin hung from a rope. To complicate matters, rumors begin to surface that Joaquin was romantically involved with the saloon girl who caused the gunfight. Lucinda, whose personality has the force of a Pacific storm, tries to manipulate and control the situation, but her plan backfires, landing Joaquin in jail. Now it's up to Charlie to confront the deranged Adan Contreras and try to save his friend, before it's too late.