March 2018 Book of the Month
My Bad: A Mile high Noir by Manuel Ramos
Published by: Arte Público Press
ISBN-10: 1558858334
ISBN-13: 978-1558858336
SYNOPSIS:
Ex-con Gus Corral is fresh out of jail and intent on keeping his nose clean. He’s living in his sister’s basement, which he shares with a cat or two, Corrine’s CDs and their father’s record collection. The blues music in particular strikes a chord, matching the way he feels about his current state.
Things start to look up when Gus gets a job working as an investigator for his attorney, Luis Montez. An activist in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Montez is slowing down and getting close to retirement, and he figures the felon can do the legwork on his cases. When Maria Contreras comes to see the lawyer about her dead husband’s “business partner” someone she has never heard of who’s demanding his share of the profits of a business she knew nothing about Montez has Gus look into the situation.
Narrating the story in alternating chapters, Gus and Luis recount their run-ins with suspicious characters as they learn that there’s more to the case than meets the eye. The widow’s husband owned and operated a local bar, not Aztlan Treasures, a Mexican folk art import company. And word on the street is that he was murdered on his boat in the Sea of Cortez. Soon, the dead bodies are piling up and the pair is surrounded by shadowy figures that point to money laundering, drug smuggling and even Mexican crime cartels.
The follow-up to Desperado, Ramos’ first novel featuring Gus Corral, My Bad races to a walloping conclusion in a Rocky Mountain blizzard, leaving fans of crime novels and Chicano literature eagerly awaiting the next installment in his mile-high noir.
BIO:
MANUEL RAMOS is the recipient of several literary awards and the author of numerous novels, including Desperado: A Mile High Noir (Arte Publico Press, 2013), The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories (Arte Publico Press, 2015), Brown-on-Brown: A Luis Móntez Mystery (University of New Mexico Press, 2003) and The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz (St. Martin’s Press, 1993; Northwestern University Press, 2004), and Edgar Award finalist. He lives and works in Denver, Colorado.
Manuel Ramos is a retired attorney and the author of nine novels, six of which feature Denver lawyer Luis Móntez, and one collection of short stories. For his professional and community service he has received the Colorado Bar Association’s Jacob V. Schaetzel Award, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association’s Chris Miranda Award, the Spirit of Tlatelolco Award, and others. His fiction has garnered the Colorado Book Award, the Chicano/Latino Literary Award, the Top Hand Award from the Colorado Authors League, and three Honorable Mentions from the Latino International Book Awards. The Móntez series debuted with The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz (1993), a finalist for the Edgar® award from the Mystery Writers of America and winner of a Colorado Book Award for Best Fiction. His published works include the mainstream novel King of the Chicanos (2010), several short stories, poems, non-fiction articles and a handbook on Colorado landlord-tenant law, now in a seventh edition. He is a co-founder of and regular contributor to La Bloga (www.labloga.blogspot.com), an award-winning Internet magazine devoted to Latino literature, culture, news, and opinion. His novel, Desperado: A Mile High Noir, won the 2014 Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery, and his short story collection, The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories, was a finalist for a Colorado Book Award. His latest novel, My Bad: A Mile High Noir, was published in 2016.
Author webpage: http://www.manuelramos.com/
