Los Quemados, Book I: The Shadow of Don Quixote

With its decades-old civil war, drug cartels, and criminal gangs, the Latin American country of San DiMarco is the most dangerous, lawless country in the western hemisphere. Felix Dominguez, the Comisionado de la Agencia Nacional de Investigación and the older brother of the first democratically-elected president in years, has to unravel a string of crimes that are calculated and cold--and apparently senseless.

Felix has survived for years as a completely honest Law Man by living a life of pure paranoia, and has an obsessive devotion to The Law, so much so that he defines himself by his adherance to it, and to his unwavering principles.

Some new invisible player is manipulating the country with a string of bombings that make no sense, and even the rebels and the cocaine cartels are threatening a return to the "Black Summer," a ten year blood bath of a gang war--and Felix's orders are to stop it.

To do that, he'll need the help of the "Spooky Witch of Los Cruces," Ari Fortunado. Ari is as beautiful as she is smart and ruthless. No one knows where she came from, not even her drug lord boss, but her ability to outsmart the police is legendary.

But, like all things in San DiMarco, the real meanings of things are subtle, and buried deep within.