Brown-on-Brown

Luis Montez despises Harry López, a con man he has represented many times and who still owes him money. But when the petty criminal asks him to consider taking on a distant cousin as a client, the lawyer sets aside his distaste because he needs the money.

Montez meets with Fermín Santos, a wealthy rancher from the San Luis Valley, whose son Dominic has been imprisoned again. He is accused of threatening a neighboring Anglo rancher—who also happens to head up the water company. The Santos patriarch has been fighting for water rights for decades. His land sits above a huge aquifer, but rights were lost generations ago, and the water is exported to other parts of Colorado and even California.

Before Montez can even deposit the retainer, Santos’ son is killed in a jailhouse riot. Dominic’s wife convinces the attorney to keep the check, claiming she needs his help to avoid more violence. Against his better judgement, Montez agrees to travel to the valley to investigate. There, he is attacked in a bar’s parking lot, badly beaten and left for dead. Is there more going on than rights to the liquid gold below the earth’s surface? Originally published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2003, this riveting read about an issue that has become even more relevant as the planet heats up is the fifth and final installment in the Luis Montez Mystery series.