HOME KILLINGS

$12.95

This jaw-dropping story reimagines mystery.

by Marcos McPeek Villatoro

ISBN:  978-1-55885-336-2
Publication Date:  March 31, 2001
Format:  Trade Paperback
Pages:  248

Available

Teeming with the shadows of revolution in Central America, the illicit drug trade, and pre- Columbian myth, this spell-binding detective novel featuring a Latina detective offers many new twists to the genre.

Romilia Chacón, a rookie in the Nashville police force, finds herself thrown immediately into her first big case on her new beat. Are the ceremonially slaughtered cadavers popping up around town the product of an ancient ritual, a serial killer or a campaign to shock rival drug lords into compliance? Can the recently-arrived detective prove herself on her first assignment while juggling her work and her home, where her mother and child are both so dependent on her? Combating the machismo of the police force and the challenges of being an outsider within the Latino community, Chacón follows the trail of murder in this fully textured and well-developed whodunit.

“Grisly, well-crafted, and unique in its choice of red herrings. Villatoro adroitly combines the best and worst of Latino culture in his first mystery. And Romilia, her mother, and her son would be welcome again.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

MARCOS MCPEEK VILLATORO, holds the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. His works include The Holy Spirit of My Uncle’s Cojones, A Fire in the Earth, They Say that I Am Two and Walking toward La Milpa: Living in Guatemala with Armies, Demons, Abrazos and Death. He lives in Van Nuys, California, with his wife and four children.