Showing The Killing of the Saints by Alex Abella

In this first Cuban-American thriller, the action genre is reinvigorated with a stunning, brutally authentic tale of suspense and witchcraft, crime and the law in Latino Los Angeles. A story of mysterious sin, love and redemption, "The Killing of the Saints" explores the hidden life of that great western metropolis and its strange, seductive alliances. Charlie Morell, a court-appointed private investigator, is compelled to take on the case of two Cuban followers of the Voodoo-like "santería" cult accused of a vicious massacre in a downtown jewelry store. But the ordinary thriller tradition is upended by the crucial role ethnic identity plays in this detective Kindle book. Charlie is himself Cuban, hiding in the City of Angels away from his own guilty secrets. His investigation of the case forces him to confront his past, exposing the real reasons Charlie abandoned his family, his wife, child and a
flourishing law practice in south Florida. Drawn to and helped by the lusty Lucinda, who has her own cloudy past, Charlie works hard, in spite of his instincts, to get his clients exonerated, precipitating a series of shocking surprises and a bloody climactic battle.

The language is brilliant and lush, the sex tropical, in this courtroom drama blazing with a realism seldom found in stories of the law. Here is a never-before-told tale by a new Cuban-American voice about a part of the country in the naked process of reinventing itself.

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REVIEWS

The New York Times
Notable Book of the Year 1991
A strange and powerful first novel, narrated by a court investigator and written in an ornate style, about the Cuban-American subculture in Los Angeles.

From Kirkus Reviews
A Cuban-American p.i. takes on the case of a Marielito charged with mass murder in a flashy and first-rate first thriller. Santería, an Afro-Catholic cult that possesses its believers, clouds the mind of Carlos "Charlie'' Morell, a recovering Miami lawyer now working as a private investigator in L.A. Morell has been assigned by the courts to assist Ramon Valdez, a Cuban refugee defending himself on a charge of aggravated murder. The devoutly Santerían Valdez and his coreligionist chum and fellow Marielito Jose Pimienta shot up the half-dozen occupants of a jewelry store while drugged to the gills and possessed by one of the nastier gods in their pantheon. Pimienta is singing for the D.A. Morell, who fled professional problems as well as his Fidel-fixated family when he left Florida, follows Ramon's directions to look up fellow worshippers, who will supposedly testify to the murderer's saintliness--a task that introduces Charlie to the spookier aspects of Santería and to the pleasant aspects of Ramon's luscious lady friend Lucinda, who, before too awfully long, has moved into Morell's life. So have murderous thugs and frightening visions of Morell's late father. The trial, when it comes, is a doozy. The prosecution calls up witnesses, but the defense calls up spirits. The ground shakes, the heavens darken, and everywhere he turns, Morell sees his father's ghost. Garcia Marquez meets Elmore Leonard. Instantly and consistently captivating. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.