{"title":"A Luis Montez Mystery","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"ballad-of-gato-guerrero-book-manuel-ramos-9781558859920","title":"The Ballad of Gato Guerrero","description":"Attorney Luis Montez and Felix \"Gato\" Guerrero, childhood friends who have survived numerous obstacles, are finally prospering. Luis is making more money in his chosen profession than he ever has and is excited about his work. Felix has gotten his life back in order after his time in Vietnam and the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter. He has even found love again. But Felix has always had a knack for getting into trouble--and this time he's dragging Luis along with him!Felix's new beloved is a girl from their past who worked her way out of Denver's Northside barrio by marrying into the city's most notorious crime family. Her husband runs the business and people who mess with him--or his things--end up with their brains splattered all over the county. As Luis juggles his caseload, including one against the local police for beating up a Mexican-American woman, and helping her hoodlum son, he gets caught up in the lovebirds' attempt to escape her dangerous husband. But he's not the only one looking for El Gato, and all too soon bodies start piling up around them!Originally published in 1994 by St. Martin's Press and reissued by Northwestern University Press in 2004, this riveting second installment in the Luis Montez Mystery series of five novels takes readers on a wild ride through Denver's mean streets and deadly encounters with young gangbangers, established gangsters and even those tasked with protecting residents--cops who continue to harass brown people with impunity.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037540974865,"sku":"NIN9781558859920","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1558859926.jpg?v=1751341169"},{"product_id":"blues-for-the-buffalo-book-manuel-ramos-9798893750089","title":"Blues for the Buffalo","description":"Chicano attorney Luis Montez has had a bad year and is relaxing on a Mexican beach with a beer in hand when Rachel Espinoza introduces herself and spreads her blanket--and very attractive bikini-clad body--next to him. They're both staying at friends' nearby houses and have heard of each other. He looks for her in the following days but doesn't see her again. Back in Denver, Montez is approached by a private detective, Conrad \"Rad\" Valdez, who's working a missing-persons case. Apparently, the lawyer was one of the last to see Rachel. The two Mexican Americans from different generations begin to share information, and Montez learns Rachel was adopted by the very wealthy Vargas family after her birth mother died in labor. Oddly, she believed that Oscar \"Zeta\" Acosta, a radical Chicano writer and activist, was her real father. She had made plans to meet him, even though he disappeared in 1974!As Montez works his own cases while continuing to unravel more about the missing woman, he learns that the young detective had a relationship with her. Could Rad have had something to do with her disappearance? And was the firebomb thrown into Denver's community bookshop--that killed a writer friend--connected to the case? Nothing is as it seems, including the Vargas family secrets that soon threaten Luis Montez and his own father! The fourth installment in Ramos' Luis Montez Mystery series of five novels follows the compelling search for Rachel Espinoza while introducing readers to another chapter in the Chicano civil rights movement.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52107923095825,"sku":"CINB0DGB3YWGFG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53665781678353,"sku":"NIN9798893750089","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9798893750089.jpg?v=1757121015"},{"product_id":"ballad-of-rocky-ruiz-book-manuel-ramos-9781558859852","title":"The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz","description":"Luis Montez is nursing a drink and licking his wounds in the Dark Knight Lounge after a bruising case. The jury took less than an hour to decide his efforts defending a client were worthless. He's on the verge of a mid-life crisis and ready to give up his law business. But the night brightens when an old friend from the Chicano student civil rights movement turns up with a beautiful woman on his arm. Teresa Fuentes, a new attorney about to start at a prestigious Denver firm, is much younger, but that doesn't keep Luis' imagination from running wild. As the weary attorney dreams about the mysterious woman and deals with his faltering law firm and an ethics investigation, he's shocked to learn another friend from the activist days is getting threats about \"the old business,\" the murder of their friend Rocky Ruiz twenty years ago by men in white robes. And when compadres get beaten up, murdered or go into hiding, Luis can't ignore that history may be repeating itself. Are the crazy racists back to finish what they started so long ago? Is it just bad luck that Teresa's arrival in town coincides with the violence? Or is there a deeper connection? Originally published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press and reissued by Northwestern University Press in 2004, this gripping first installment in the Luis Montez Mystery series introduces readers to the Denver attorney and activist who appears in four subsequent novels.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52471761830161,"sku":"CIN1558859853G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53606035980561,"sku":"CIN1558859853VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781558859852.jpg?v=1759831470"},{"product_id":"brown-on-brown-book-manuel-ramos-9798893750232","title":"Brown-On-Brown","description":"Luis Montez despises Harry López, a con man he has represented many times and who still owes him money. But when the petty criminal asks him to consider taking on a distant cousin as a client, the lawyer sets aside his distaste because he needs the money. Montez meets with Fermín Santos, a wealthy rancher from the San Luis Valley, whose son Dominic has been imprisoned again. He is accused of threatening a neighboring Anglo rancher--who also happens to head up the water company. The Santos patriarch has been fighting for water rights for decades. His land sits above a huge aquifer, but rights were lost generations ago, and the water is exported to other parts of Colorado and even California. Before Montez can even deposit the retainer, Santos' son is killed in a jailhouse riot. Dominic's wife convinces the attorney to keep the check, claiming she needs his help to avoid more violence. Against his better judgement, Montez agrees to travel to the valley to investigate. There, he is attacked in a bar's parking lot, badly beaten and left for dead. Is there more going on than rights to the liquid gold below the earth's surface? Originally published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2003, this riveting read about an issue that has become even more relevant as the planet heats up is the fifth and final installment in the Luis Montez Mystery series.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53665792852241,"sku":"NIN9798893750232","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9798893750232.jpg?v=1781462302"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/a-luis-montez-mystery-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}