Missing
Sam Hawken
Serpent’s Tail, May 5 2015, $14.95
ISBN 9781846689420
Since his wife Vilma died from cancer, widower Jack Searle raises
his two stepdaughters (thirteen years old Lidia and her older teenage sister
Marina) in Laredo, Texas. The handyman
insures his children never forget their late mom’s Mexican heritage by
consistently taking them to their maternal relatives across the border in Nuevo
Laredo.
The older sibling Marina asks her stepdad if she can attend a
concert in Nuevo Laredo with her cousin.
His instincts tell him to say no as the cartels own Nuevo Laredo, but
Jack reluctantly allows Marina to go.
Neither cousin comes home. Filled
with dread, Searle allows the city police to search for his missing child. When he realizes they do not care nor want to
confront the cartels, frantic Searle loses patience. He dives head first into the city slime in
search of his missing Marina.
The latest Sam Hawken Texas-Mexico border crime thriller (see The
Dead Women of Juarez and Tequila Sunset) is an action-packed drama that
establishes an intriguing background with minor nuances like dinner and phone
minutes; and local policing in a “war zone” (similar to the Bridge). Although the prime characters are
underdeveloped, the simmering storyline hooks the audience from the moment the
two cousins go missing and never slows down particularly when Jack plunges into
the cesspool.
Harriet Klausner
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