Sonora Crossing: A Del Shannon Novel

James’s second Del Shannon novel improves on the promising first in the series, Nazareth Child (2011). When six-year-old Aurea Lara is kidnapped, her relatives turn to the feisty Tucson, Ariz., PI for help. Aurea’s Mexican drug-trafficker uncle, Santos Del La Cal, has seized the girl out of a belief that the mute child possesses powers of clairvoyance. After agreeing to take on the case, Del crosses the border, where she encounters vigilantes fighting Santos. Rescuing Aurea from Santos’s nearly impregnable fortress is job one, but Del must also come to terms with the murder of her former lover, Tucson cop Ed Jeski, after Jeski is gunned down in a motel room. James surrounds the passionate and determined Del, who comfortably occupies center stage, with plenty of interesting characters and a plot to severely test her will and ingenuity. (Sept.)