Juarez Justice - Hardcover

Trolley, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786703563 ISBN 13: 9780786703562

Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub, 1996

Synopsis

Det. Sgt. Tommy Donahoo, aided by rookie SDPD investigator Cruz Martino, plunges into dark side of slum-ridden Tijuana while investigating the bizarre rape-murder of a beautiful Tijuana socialite, but he soon discovers that his real goal is to assassinate Diablo, the man responsible for Tijuana's ruin.

About this title

Review:

Jack Trolley's San Diego police detective Tommy Donahoo ventures once again across the border to trace the trail of political corruption in modern-day Mexico in this bizarre, noirish crime thriller. Donahoo is a hard-living cop, but his own peccadilloes are nothing compared to those of the Mexican kingpins he encounters in Juarez. Trolley's inventions would seem laughable, except for the steady stream of surreal, jaw-dropping headlines that emerge from south of the border every day. Fetid jails, payoffs, baby-for-sale schemes, assassins for hire: it's all here. Mexico has fascinated many American mythmakers, from Orson Welles to Cormac McCarthy; Jack Trolley makes it seem like a disturbing photographic negative of America's soul.

From Kirkus Reviews:

San Diego's top homicide cop, world-weary Det. Sgt. Tommy Donahoo (Manila Time, 1995, etc.), heads south--to Tijuana, where the Mexican police say they need help solving the brutal rape/murder of Deedee Hernandez, socialite wife of a doctor with big-time connections. Was Deedee killed because of her do-gooder efforts to publicize the plight of thousands of ``dump people'' living on mounds of garbage? And have the town's evil forces (led by a monster known as ``Diablo'') managed to frame another decent activist, on Pedro Juarez, for the crime? So it seems--as Donahoo and his naive sidekick, rookie investigator Cruz Marino, are repeatedly doused in the cesspool of Tijuana's prisons, brothels, and bars. But, eventually, after more bodies surface and Donahoo gets alternately roughed up and sweet-talked (by a beautiful Tijuana lawyer with lips that ``pouted like little cocktail sausages''), it becomes clear that Donahoo and Marino aren't supposed to solve anything: They're being programmed to get so angry about the local horrors that they turn into ruthless vigilantes. Overheated, far-fetched corruption-melodrama, with more gross- outs than absolutely necessary--but readers who don't flinch easily will find steady interest in the darkly comic dialogue, unblinkingly grim reportage, and intriguing character tidbits. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0786703563
• ISBN 13: 9780786703562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 241