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A prominent city councilmember, Tito Garcia, is assassinated at the beginning of the Santa Fe Fiesta. Known as a peacemaker, he had negotiated an agreement to ban a controversial Fiesta procession known as the Entrada. The procession celebrated the Reconquest of Santa Fe twelve years after the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion drove the Spanish out of Santa Fe. Both Spanish and Native American groups blame each other for Garcia's murder and vow revenge. The situation explodes in violence when one Hispanic group attempts to march in downtown Santa Fe in violation of the agreement. Fernando Lopez is forced to rethink the case when he discovers Garcia's involvement with Three-Hills Ranch, a compound suspected of sex-trafficking young women from border towns like Nogales and Juarez. The journey to find answers takes Lopez on a journey into the underbelly of wealthy Santa Fe society where deep cultural and ethnic conflicts have festered for over four hundred years. Smokescreen, the second in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series, concludes in a fiery confrontation at Three-Hills Ranch, where the truth is finally revealed and justice served. Includes Reading Guide.
About the author
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe in the 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of twenty previous books, including Hiking New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History; Santa Fe, City of Refuge: An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture and New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: Photographing the Ancient City, in addition to Peyote Wolf, Smokescreen, Ghost Canyon, The Dead Go Fast, Painted Skull Ranch, Taos Gothic, Devil on Canyon Road, Taos Vendetta, Pecos Reckoning, The Witchcraft Murders, Santa Fe Assassin and A Death Demanded in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series. He teaches a Mystery Writing Workshop regularly at the downtown Santa Fe Public Library.
