Marcos Villatoro

A young girl’s body is found in the California desert, just steps from the border with Mexico. Karen Allende shows up with FBI credentials and begins taking pictures. But the real federal agents are just behind her, and arrest her for cyber crimes. As they take her away, she tosses a business card to the police officer at the scene and asks him to call her “sister.” Romilia Chacon is the real FBI agent, and a long-time family friend. As Romilia talks to Karen she becomes involved in a case of international sex trafficking and child pornography.

This is a hard-boiled crime novel with an interesting female lead. It’s number four in the Romilia Chacon series, but I have not read any of the other books. There is a lot of back story referenced in this book, so I didn’t feel lost. I also don’t feel any desire to go read the rest of the books.

Romilia clearly has significant issues and it seems that she is not doing a very good job of dealing with her previous traumas. I find it hard to believe that she could effectively function (and so successfully) given her heavy drinking and apparent love interest with a deceased major drug lord. I was also puzzled by Romilia’s relationship with Karen Allende and her mother. At one point Karen is the focus of Romilia’s attention, and then she just forgets about her for several days, and it doesn’t seem that Karen’s mother is very concerned either.

The book includes a sample chapter from Book # 5 in the series, and I can see immediately that the story continues with some of the same characters, and one “surprise” that I had already figured out.

In summary – it’s a gripping mystery, with many twists and turns, a violent sicko serial killer, and a psychologically damaged yet still strong female lead detective. There’s plenty of action to keep the reader turning pages, but I’m left somewhat dissatisfied.… (más)