cover image Remember My Face: A Willie Cuesta Mystery

Remember My Face: A Willie Cuesta Mystery

John Lantigua. Arte Público, $18.95 trade paper (220p) ISBN 978-1-55885-907-4

In Edgar finalist Lantigua’s well-crafted fifth Willie Cuesta mystery (after 2011’s On Hallowed Grounds), an immigration attorney hires the sharp-witted Miami PI to search for Ernesto Pérez in Cane County, an agricultural area in central Florida. Ernesto had been working in Cane County for years, dutifully sending money back home to his family in Mexico. Then three months earlier, Ernesto’s weekly phone calls stopped. Willie pulls into Cane City, the county capital, and is surprised to see a number of the citizens with pistols strapped to their hips or toting AR-15s. Open carry is not legal in Florida, but “it seemed like the citizens of Cane County had not gotten the memo.” Ernesto’s friends, whom Willie interviews, soon turn up dead, with Willie’s business card in their pockets. The rich and varied characters in this intriguingly twisty tale spring organically from the sandy soil of South Florida. This intelligent, timely novel is sure to win Lantigua new fans. Agent: Greg Aunapu, Salkind Literary. (Sept.)