Midnight Cactus
Bella Pollen, . . Black Cat, $14 (437pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-7031-6
Restless and unfulfilled, Alice Coleman jumps at the chance to spend a year away from London and her officious, workaholic developer husband, Robert. Accompanied only by her young children, Jack and Emmy, Alice arrives in Temerosa, Ariz., a ghost town her husband bought, to oversee the renovation of the decrepit property into a resort. Unprepared for life in the remote desert community, Alice finds herself immersed in a harsh climate filled with deadly wildlife, illegal immigrants, immigrant traffickers and vigilante border guards. The construction crew working on her expansive property, she suspects, are illegals, as is the maid she hires in a fit of "wretched middle class guilt." Meanwhile, Alice is drawn into a flirtation with handsome local crew leader Henry Duval, whose rugged charm covers his own dark secrets. Robert joins the family in Temerosa and gets sucked into a murder investigation involving Henry, and things get dire. Pollen (
Reviewed on: 10/02/2006
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 436 pages - 978-1-4050-0574-6
Open Ebook - 256 pages - 978-0-330-53048-4
Open Ebook - 448 pages - 978-1-55584-722-7
Paperback - 450 pages - 978-0-330-41269-8