Acapulco’s first and only female police detective, Emilia
Cruz, is back in HAT DANCE and risking a dance with the devil in order to catch
a violent arsonist and find a missing girl. With hot nights on the beach and
suspense straight out of the headlines, HAT DANCE and the Emilia Cruz mystery
series go inside Mexico's drug war with a fearless style and a woman who'll be
hard to forget.
HAT DANCE is the second novel in the Emilia Cruz mystery
series. It follows CLIFF DIVER, the novel that Kirkus Review called
“Consistently exciting . . . a clever Mexican detective tale that will leave
readers eager for the next installment in the series.”
Together with hotel manager Kurt Rucker, Emilia survives an
arson attack assumed to be an attempt to assassinate Acapulco’s popular
mayor. Distracted by the disappearance
of a girl from her own neighborhood and crippled by nightmares of the arson, Emilia’s
police work is soon hijacked by deadly political rivalries, a dirty Vice cop,
and a woman in prison who knows more than she’ll say.
Neither investigation is easy, because this is Acapulco, a
place where corruption is the backdrop for every move Emilia makes; a place
where the influence and impact of Mexico’s drug war is everywhere, just like
the salt breeze coming off the ocean.
As Acapulco burns, clues to the elusive arsonist are merely smokescreens and the missing
girl’s trail is littered with secrets. The line between allies and enemies
blurs and the devil’s price for the dance might just be Emilia’s own life.