Precinct Puerto Rico — Steven Torres

Best Mystery Novel of the 2003 Latino Book Awards

The first in a series of police procedural mysteries featuring Luis Gonzalo and the citizens and cops of Angustias, Precinct Puerto Rico: Book One is a brilliant beginning to a continuing story from a long overdue locale.

Near Rincón, Puerto Rico, 1987.
Even a tropical paradise may have its little murders.

In his years as sheriff of Angustias, a small town nestled in Puerto Rico's mountainous heart, Luis Gonzalo has seen his share of violence. People kill for love and money in Angustias just as they do anywhere else. But it is during a visit to his wife's family in the seaside town of Rincón that Gonzalo encounters his greatest challenge.

A midnight call brings Gonzalo to a beach where bodies are washing ashore, victims of a shipwreck, victims of the illegal traffic in humans from the Dominican Republic. When he discovers evidence that the shipwreck was no accident, that the ship's captain was murdered, Gonzalo's life is threatened. When he discovers proof that Puerto Rican police were involved in the deaths of the illegal immigrants, the lives of his wife and children are threatened. The murder of one of his deputies brings Gonzalo no closer to the bottom of this mystery-- a mystery no other law enforcement agency wants to help him solve.