The Last Client of Luis Montez

A Mystery

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by Manuel Ramos,

Foreword by Marianne Wesson,

Introduction by Ilan Stavans

Northwestern University Press

Due/Published May 2004, 194 pages, paper

ISBN 0810120976

Chicano lawyer and former activist Luis Montez has good reason to congratulate himself on a job well done while he waits to meet his client's attractive and appreciative sister for a celebratory drink. Jimmy Esch, son of one of Denver's most powerful families, and accused fairly convincingly of narcotics possession, is a free man. Less than a day later, Luis's last client is also a dead man. And Luis is under arrest for murder, watching what's left of his life spiral out of control. If only he could locate his alibi, Jimmy's sister. If only matters weren't complicated by the implication of police misconduct that won his case, and now makes Luis the local police department's Most Wanted suspect. And if only his father weren't lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by family members, expecting Luis to be by his side. With everything to lose, Luis follows a trail from the Colorado Rockies, across the Nevada desert, and into the seaside barrios of San Diego, where he buries old ghosts, confronts new truths, and tries to clear his name.