The allure of booze and betting south of the border is the focus of San Diego State professor Vanderwood's (Juan Soldado
) muddled history of a famed Tijuana gaming resort that flourished during Prohibition. Conceived and launched by three American “Border Barons”—Wirt Bowman, James Crofton, and Baron Long—Agua Caliente became the premiere destination of Hollywood royalty, foreign dignitaries, and regular citizens who wanted to drink, gamble, and visit the myriad brothels. The bootleggers and mobsters who sprang up in neighboring San Diego after the 18th Amendment outlawed liquor in the U.S. were also drawn to the oasis of sin, and Vanderwood spends considerable time detailing the botched 1929 robbery of a car delivering the resort's cash haul to the States, ending in a double murder. The hunt for the killers and their sensational trial drags on with little suspense, and readers soon long for more stories involving Agua Caliente's glitzy clientele, like the young Rita Hayworth. Meandering from topic to topic, often with long excursions into the personal histories of even minor players, this reads like a patched-together outline for a potentially fascinating book. 82 b&w illus. (May)
