THE BALLARD 0F GATO GUERRO

New York: St Martins Press, 1994. 1st edition, May 1994, with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover. "In his second appearance, Denver-based Latino lawyer Luis Montez, introduced in The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz , again plunges into the past, revealed here in extensive flashbacks. Felix "Gato" Guerrero belongs to Luis's beer-drinking, wild-running teen years. Although Luis's lifestyle has been tempered by age and his painful divorce, Felix still kicks back on occasion--with booze, eight-ball, gambling and fistfights. The death of his daughter, the subsequent suicide of his wife and a harrowing stint in Vietnam has left Felix with ghosts to exorcise along with his new enemies. Felix calls on Luis to save him and Elizabeth, his sultry new love who is also the wife of Trini Anglin, a Latino mobster with a jealous heart. Also anxious to get his hands on Felix is Edwin Talmage, his onetime father-in-law, a bitter, well-connected man. Luis fights to keep Felix alive, while also trying to save the hoodlum son of another client. Luis is a remarkably upbeat soul in a world awash in domestic violence, gang and police brutality and the almost continual antagonism he faces as a Latino in a white world..."--PW. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.