Death of the Last Villista: A Texana Jones Mystery (Texana Jones Mysteries) (Hardcover)

by Allana Martin (Author) "At 6:00 A.M., with an hour to go before sunrise, I returned on the light switch and flipped the CLOSED sign to OPEN without so..." (more)
Key Phrases: ghillie suit, video crew, Dane Anthony, Rosalinda Pray, Jon French (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The best parts of Martin's fifth Texana Jones mystery (after 2000's Death of a Myth Maker) are the lyrical descriptions of the setting, the gritty Texas border country along the Pecos River. When a travel writer dismisses her own town of Polvo as "a hot, dreary little place full of barking cur dogs," Texana, who runs a trading post, agrees but adds, "On a clear day the sky above is pale turquoise, the dust motes turn the harsh sunlight golden, and the shadows of mesquite leaves dance in the wind." More of this kind of strong, thoughtful writing might have helped energize Martin's plot and characterization, both of which tend to flop like limp tortillas. Forty years earlier, a Hollywood film crew came to Polvo to make a movie about Pancho Villa. A project adviser, who as a boy had served with Villa, was found murdered on an island between Texas and Mexico, and the crime was never solved. Now a television crew has come to town to do a documentary, and everybody connected to the film becomes both a suspect and a possible victim of a vindictive assailant who emerges from the mists of the past to blow up motor homes and generally cause trouble. Texana was a child extra in the film and now finds a link between her late mother and the murdered Villista. Central to the story's resolution are Texana and her husband, Clay, the local vet. Most readers will have left by then, perhaps headed for Polvo to sample the scenery.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Through five installments, Martin's Texana Jones series has steadily improved. The novels have always boasted slick plotting and vivid depictions of the stark Chihuahuan Desert of Presidio County, Texas, but the dialogue occasionally seemed a bit wooden. No more, as Martin hits her stride with a polished, sparse, and succinct style that elegantly echoes the starkness of the physical setting and the essential simplicity of Texana's life and those of her rancher neighbors. That simplicity is a little ruffled, though, when a film crew arrives to produce a documentary for the fortieth anniversary of a movie about Pancho Villa filmed nearby. During the original filming a cast member was murdered and his killer never found. This time around new violence erupts, seemingly linked to the unsolved murder. A compelling story, beautifully written and not to be missed. Stuart Miller
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition (August 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312265735
• ISBN-13: 978-0312265731
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,579,956 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great atmospheic mystey, August 1, 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The border land adjacent to both sides of the Rio Grande has its own rhythm, culture, and language that sets it apart from the rest of both countries. Texanna Jones operates a trading post two miles west of Polo, a small hamlet of hundred and twenty-five people. She has lived there all her life and is part of the community that took part in the filming of Pancho, a movie about the 1917 raid of the Moore Ranch by Villa and his followers. To add authenticity to the film, the director hired former Villa follower Jacinto Trejo on as a consultant. Trejo was killed shortly before the movie ended.

Now an independent video producer is creating a PBS special celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the movie. The male lead in Pancho is a big hit in a TV sitcom, hence the PBS special. Texanna is leasing land to the moviemakers and the trading post is the center of operations. At the beginning of the production, the RV of the male lead blows up and nobody is sure whether it is an accident or arson. A young boy goes missing and Texanna finds out that her mother and Trejo were lovers before he was killed. Allana is unable to let past secrets stay buried and is determined, for her mother's sake, to find out who killed Trejo, but somebody wants past secrets to stay hidden.

DEATH OF THE LAST VILLISTA is much more than a mystery; it is a glimpse into a subculture that is a part of yet separate from the rest of the United States and Mexico. The characters give the novel atmosphere and a sense of what it is like living on the border. Allana Martin has created a novel that has depth yet remains very entertaining.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More character than Mystery, March 17, 2002

By	James Collett (Midland, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have enjoyed the Allana Martin series a great deal because I know the area she writes of so well (as obviously Publisher's "Weakly" does not--they have the wrong river. Texana lives on the Rio Grande, well over a hundred miles from any stretch of the Pecos River). I know the area well and Martin has captured it exquisitely. That, along with the development of her characters, both major and minor, makes the series worthwhile. Most of her mysteries don't necessarily hold the reader breathlessly enthralled. However, if one follows the series, the borderlands of Texas come alive.
In this story, for example, Texana Jones, the narrator, has to come to terms with her recluse father and the memory of her mother. The events of the present-day movie-making reveal an entire new picture of her parents. In many of our own lives, we suddenly stumble upon some fact or event which radically alters our view of our parents and the memories we hold of them. The greater mystery in this tale lies in the relationships of the past than the murders, either then or now. I found the crafted redrawing of histories, Texana's, her parents',Polvo's, and even that of the Villista quite entertaining and thought-provoking.
I recommend this book, especially if you have followed the series in order. Ms. Martin's tales collectively may be less mysterious than one might desire, but they do demystify one of the last frontiers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner--wide open West Texas country, September 29, 2001

By	booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Decades ago, moviemakers came to the west Texas town where Texana Jones lives with her vet-husband--and one of them was killed. Now, some of the stars are returning to film a documentary and memories of that long-ago murder are resurfacing.

Texana can ignore a threatening note, but when a mobile home is destroyed and several people injured, she has to investigate. She learns more than she wanted to know about the past--her mother's relationship with the victim, and an excellent motive for her father to have been the killer.

Author Allana Martin does a wonderful job describing the wild west Texas country, but also the close-knit community that it inspires. Some of the best scenes in this novel come where Texana is simply experiencing her every-day life--which is much of a mystery to those of us who live in urban areas.

Another fine effort in this enjoyable series.