From Library Journal
In this third in a series, Oakland Hispanic private detective Gloria Damasco (Cactus Blood) witnesses a murder attempt on a woman recently released from prison. Licia, the "Black Widow," killed her abusive husband and served her time, but now she believes herself to be the reincarnation of an Aztec woman who betrayed her people to Cort?s. Gloria pursues information about Licia and the people connected to her: her brother-in-law, her evasive lawyer, the adminstrator of her business affairs, the clairvoyant she befriended in prison. A nicely curlicued plotAdelving backward into family, history, and mysticismAthat keeps the pages flying. Strongly recommended.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Eighteen years ago, Licia Rom n Lecuona went to prison for killing her husband when an all-male jury didn't buy her story of nonstop mental and physical abuse. Now that she's served her time, though, the woman called Black Widow seems to be more victim than aggressoror at least that's how it seems to Oakland shamus Gloria Damasco (Cactus Blood, 1995, etc.), who first encounters Black Widow when she's been wounded with a knife just after the celebration of the Day of the Dead. Industrialist Michael Cisneros, who served as executor for the will that left Licia wealthy enough to be worth abusing, hires second-sighted Gloria to find out who's trying to kill Licia. But even before the two haunted women meet, the case is muddied (not for the last time) by the news that Licia considers herself a reincarnation of Malintzin Tenepal, La Malinche, the native woman who, given as a gift to the conquistador Corts, helped him subdue a nation to her everlasting sorrow. Was it La Malinche who raised the weapon against Licia's intolerable husband? Why is someone now following Gloria's every move? What secrets will a trip to Mexico reveal? And how is Licia, in a terrible final parallel between her life and La Malinche's, connected to a ruthless baby- selling racket? Gloria's third is part mystery, part history, part travelogue, part spiritual speculationa busy, many-layered invention stuffed within an inch of its many lives. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
