Rudolfo Anaya, University of New Mexico Press, $17.95, Softcover.
Rudolfo Anaya, University of New Mexico Press, $17.95, Softcover.

When a dead woman drops out of the sky over Albuquerque, New Mexico, during an annual balloon festival, private eye Sonny Baca hits the trail. He suspects the killer is a wacky environmentalist who despises local law enforcement because of the atomic experiments that took place at Los Alamos. More and more people get killed in balloon accidents. The fast-action plot includes sexy women, deadly mobsters, Hispanic witches and a goofy medical doctor high on cocaine who performs baboon heart transplants on terrified humans. Like Indiana Jones, Sonny is a wildly unbelievable, though entertaining, sleuth.

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