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Searching... Oakdale Library | MYSTERY MIT | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Crossing the checkpoint--known as a choke point to smugglers and Border Patrol officers alike--P.I. Brinker enters a treacherous underworld in Mexico while investigating the rape and murder of an idealistic reporter.
Author Notes
James C. Mitchell has been an attorney, journalist, and broadcaster, and he currently teaches at the University of Arizona Department of Journalism. He lives with his wife, children's book author Marianne Mitchell, in Tucson, Arizona.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Mitchell's strong follow-up to Lover's Crossing (2003), which introduced Tucson-based PI Roscoe Brinker, April Lennox, an idealistic, attractive young reporter for an L.A. alternative weekly, arrives in Tucson to interview an undocumented Mexican national who sneaked across the border to tell his story. Only trouble is, the man winds up dead before the meeting. Lennox attempts to enlist Brinker's help in investigating below the border. The detective, reluctant to get involved, initially refuses, but he finally agrees to accompany the reporter to Hermosillo. Just before they are set to leave, Brinker is called away to Phoenix to look for a missing girl. Lennox, anxious to get her story, makes the trip to Mexico alone to interview a relative of the slain man-not a good idea, as it turns out. Mitchell, a former attorney and journalism professor, knows the border region intimately and has created in Brinker a likable and complex character. While this book lacks the urgency and cohesiveness of the author's impressive debut, it is a gripping crime novel that should appeal to a wide audience. Agent, Esmond Harmsworth. (Oct. 29) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
April Lennox, a reporter for an alternative news service, was to meet a source on the same night Tucson college basketball fans took to the streets to celebrate a national championship. Her tipster, an anonymous Mexican national, was murdered during the celebration. She approaches Brinker, a former border-patrol agent turned private investigator. He is reluctant to chase the leads to Mexico--the scene of the personal disaster that altered his life forever--and declines the case. The young reporter moves on without him and is herself murdered in Mexico. Brinker feels responsible for her death and heads to Mexico on his own. Enlisting the aid of a drug kingpin who senses the killings may impact his own empire, Brinker follows the trail to the local maquilas, which employ cheap Mexican labor to package drugs for international consumption. The second Brinker case-- Lover's Crossing (2003) was his deservedly praised debut--is equal parts classic PI novel, social critique, and psychological drama. Brinker confronts his fear of Mexico, accepts the dissolution of a romantic relationship, and resolves his guilt over Lennox's death. Along the way he also brings down the bad guys in classic tough-guy fashion with a brilliantly executed plan. Brinker is the real deal, folks, and he'll be around a long, long time. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2004 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A shamus, a drug enforcer, and a pesky reporter clear away the corpses littering the route between Tucson and Nogales. The first murder, a Juan Doe, occurred during a Duke-Arizona basketball game riot when the victim was in Tucson to spin a tale of Mexican "oppression and murder" for wire-service reporter April Lennox. When April traced one of his family members to Nogales, she became the second victim. Roscoe Brinker, a shamus as old-fashioned as Lew Archer, is upset with himself for refusing to accompany April to Mexico. So he leans on Vicente, the massive drug dealer who saved his life (Lovers Crossing, 2002), for muscle and on his youthful crush Gabi, an LA investigative reporter, for background. Tailed, seduced, and beaten up, the trio connects April and Doe's deaths to ten others, all involving the Nogales-based, American-owned factories of Armistadt Enterprises, whose board of directors includes April's wealthy dad. Were Doe, his slain girlfriend Alma, and muckraking April about to expose illegal shenanigans at Armistadt? Though suspicion falls on April's abusive lover Dickie, as well as on her dad and a crack-the-whip plant manager, it takes a communiquÉ from New Delhi to pinpoint the true source of corruption and highlight the dangers of outsourcing. The serviceable plot, culled from today's headlines, is made memorable by Brinker, who sleeps just fine despite his interesting notions of fair play. Some actor bucking for superstardom should snap this one up. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
