Sonny Baca

Chicano detective Sonny Baca mines the fertile spiritual terrain of the Southwest in his quest for his cousin's killer The great-grandson of a legendary lawman and gunfighter, thirty-year-old Sonny Baca hopes he possesses even a tenth of El Bisabuelo's courage. But instead of cleaning up New Mexico by hunting down dangerous desperadoes, the struggling PI looks for missing persons and deadbeat husbands. The game changes when his cousin Gloria-the first woman Sonny ever loved-is brutally slain. Her corpse is found drained of blood. A zia sun sign, the symbol on the New Mexican flag, is carved on her stomach.   Gloria's husband, Frank Dominic, a politician making a run for mayor of Albuquerque, has a powerful motive for murder. But Gloria wasn't the first victim. A year earlier, another woman was slain in the exact same way. Is a serial killer on the loose? Or is this the handiwork of some satanic cult? Feeling his cousin's spirit crying out for justice, Sonny and his girlfriend, Rita, begin a search that takes them across New Mexico's polluted South Valley to an environmental compound in the mountains. As Sonny moves closer to the truth, he uncovers a chilling connection between his past and a very real and present evil. Wanted by the FBI, the brujo known as Raven plays mind games and changes shape at will. Will Sonny be able to stop his diabolical plan before the Southwest explodes in a nuclear holocaust?   Zia Summer is a thrilling spiritual journey that doesn't hesitate to ask the big questions.

A PI with deep cultural roots in his native New Mexico, Sonny Baca is guided by his intuition and guardian spirit, the coyote-but is that enough to stop a cult leader's murderous rampage? The world-famous International Balloon Fiesta of Albuquerque is one of the city's most eagerly anticipated annual events and its biggest moneymaker. But when a woman plunges to her death from one of the balloons-foreshadowed by Sonny's vision of a body plummeting from the sky-Sonny's sure it's murder.   The dead woman was the chief witness to testify against the cult implicated in the murder for hire of Sonny's cousin Gloria, whose death still haunts him. In addition to motive, Sonny finds means and opportunity: a homeless family who saw someone push Veronica Worthy out of the hot-air balloon. Worthy was one of the four wives of Raven, leader of the sun cult, and a dangerous, shamanlike criminal who's supposed to be dead. But the four black feathers found on the corpse are his calling card-clues to let Sonny know he's alive and kicking. And his murder spree isn't over.   Led by his spirit guides, Sonny races to stop a vengeful madman and save the woman he loves.

Sonny Baca, the New Mexican shaman and PI, is up against a shape-shifting adversary who haunts Sonny's worst nightmares   After a savage confrontation with his archenemy, Sonny Baca is confined to a wheelchair. The doctors don't know if he'll ever walk again-and now the Chicano PI is plagued by disturbing dreams of his female ancestors being abducted. The reality is even more chilling. In present-day Santa Fe, the mayor's sixteen-year-old daughter has disappeared. The four black feathers found on Consuelo Romero's bed confirm Sonny's fears: Three more girls will go missing before Raven's master plan becomes a terrifyingly reality.   A charismatic, chameleonlike power broker who also possesses a shaman's gifts, Raven lures radical environmentalists into committing terrorist acts under the guise of antinuclear protests. But his true agenda is to bring down Sonny once and for all. By obliterating Sonny's dreams-the portal into the spirit world-he will destroy his past and his future. The only way to fight back is for Sonny to enter Raven's own dream state. But can he rid the world of an evil that refuses to die?   Rich in atmosphere and setting, this stellar series offers both edge-of-your-seat mystery and one man's journey into the complex landscape of the soul.

A high-profile murder ignites a hotbed of political treachery and terrorist threats that pit the Chicano PI against his most formidable foe  Sonny Baca has learned to see beneath life's observable reality and develop a new kind of sight. The Chicano PI will need his most powerful guardian spirits when he's called in to investigate the death of the governor of New Mexico. Before the murder, Sonny dreamed of a body floating in dark, swirling water. Not only was the governor drowned, but black feathers were found on his corpse. Sonny fears the killer is his old nemesis, Raven, the vicious cult leader responsible for the death of Sonny's cousin and the near death of Sonny's girlfriend, Rita. But the worst is yet to com: Someone has planted a bomb in the Valles Caldera, near Los Alamos. And it's set to go off in a few hours.   Is this the work of Raven? Or someone else? With Chica, his dreaming dog, Sonny delves into the world of the Jemez Pueblo tribe, which has made the mountain its sacred site. But the evil that men do could annihilate the land and a people struggling desperately for survival. Now Sonny must stop a killer before more innocent people die-if his own hunger for revenge doesn't destroy him first.

From the author of Bless Me, Ultima: Four mysteries featuring a Chicano PI in New Mexico. These four novels starring detective Sonny Baca are set against the lush terrain of the American Southwest, blending its Spanish, Mexican, and Native American cultures. * Zia Summer: Sonny Baca's cousin Gloria is brutally slain, her body found drained of blood with a Zia sun sign-the symbol on the New Mexican flag-carved on her stomach. His quest to find her killer leads Baca across New Mexico's diverse South Valley to an environmental compound and a terrifying brujo. * Rio Grande Fall: A woman plummets to her death from a hot air balloon during Albuquerque's famous Balloon Fiesta-and Baca recognizes it as no accident. * Shaman Winter: Baca, confined to a wheelchair after a violent encounter, is haunted by chilling dreams, but has no other choice than to go to work when the Santa Fe mayor's teenage daughter disappears and the trail leads to a charismatic and dangerous shaman. * Jemez Spring: A high-profile murder ignites a hotbed of political treachery and terrorist threats that take Baca to Los Alamos, pitting him against a formidable foe and a nuclear bomb. Unrelentingly suspenseful, with vivid details of the physical and spiritual landscape of northern New Mexico, these mysteries are great for fans of Margaret Coel or James D. Doss.