Ballad of Rocky Ruiz

Though I'm not one for buying up every new mystery novel that comes out each year, I had a particular interest in "The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz" by Manuel Ramos because, as with Ramos, I am an attorney, a Chicano and a fiction writer. Well, I wasn't disappointed. Because this is a mystery with a fine, surprising ending, let me just say that I enjoyed the voice of the hardened, divorced, booze-loving protagonist, Luis Montez, a solo practitioner who finds his old friends from El Movimiento - the Chicano political movement - dying all around him. Throw in a beautiful, mysterious Chicana and things really start hopping. This short, tight novel will keep you guessing until the last pages. I highly recommend this book.