Juarez Justice

Tommy Donahoo is probably not what the boosters of NAFTA had in mind. In this funny, literate thriller, the San Diego detective (last seen in Manila Time, 1995) heads south to Tijuana as a liaison on a case involving the murder of a rich socialite. Mexican police Captain Torres insists on showing Donahoo the depths of barrio poverty, comparing it to the sybaritic lives of very rich Mexicans. Donahoo, as jaded as they come, is only slightly impressed, but his young SDPD translator, Cruz Marino, is seriously shaken and eventually lured into a reckless plot to assassinate Tijuana's crime kingpin. In fact, Donahoo soon wonders whether he's been called in to solve a crime or to commit one--a distinction often lost on the Mexican police and politicos, who make their Yanqui counterparts look like choirboys. Tension is fueled by major culture clashes and Trolley's crisp noir style: when a beautiful Mexican lawyer says, ""It's not over until the fat lady is buried,"" Donahoo ""didn't correct her. It was, he suspected, the Mexican version."" Donahoo is very much of the old hardboiled school, smoking, drinking (a lot) and bedding the Mexican beauty. Trolley, in complete command of thick atmospherics, lights a long sparking fuse of a plot and follows it all the way through to an explosive ending. (Oct.)