Zia Summer Author:Rudolfo Anaya Called a founding father of Chicano literature in English, the author of Bless Me, Ultima and Alburquerque tries his hand at detective fiction but continues to shine brightest with his trademark alchemy: blending Spanish, Mexican and Indian cultures to evoke the distinctively fecund spiritual terrain of his part of the Southwest. — Here Sonny Bac... more »a, a 30-year-old fledgling PI, investigates the murder of his prima, Gloria Dominic, the cousin who many years before had introduced him to love. Gloria's husband is worried most about the effect of the gruesome death (Gloria's body is found drained of blood, with a zia sun sign carved on her stomach) on his mayoral campaign in Albuquerque. Sonny believes Gloria's spirit calls to him for vengeance and pursues the case throughout New Mexico's South Valley, from the cocktail-party circuit of the arts community and the company of monied business developers to an assemblage of witches in an environmentalist commune in the mountains.« less
Anaya knows the Hispanos of the New Mexico Rio Grande valley, there is no doubt about that. But he makes some dumb mistakes concerning rural and ranching life that really grated with me. Not nearly as good as his previous books.