In this first Cuban-American thriller, the genre is reinvigorated with a stunning, brutually authentic tale of commerce and witchcraft, crime and the law in Hispanic Los Angeles. A story of mysterious sin, love and redemption, "The Killing of the Saints" explores the hidden life of that great western metropolis and its strange, seductive alliances.

     Charlie Morell, a court-appointed private investigator, is compelled to take on the case of two Cuban "marielitos" -- followers of the voodoo-like santería cult -- accused of a particuarly vicious massacre in a downtwon jewelry store.

     But the ordinary thriller tradition is upended by the crucial role ethnic identity plays in this story. Charlie is himself Cuban, hiding the City of Angels away from his own guilty secrets -- just another faceless detective. His investigation of the santería case forces him to confront his past, exposing the real reasons Charlie abandoned his exile family, his wife, child and a flourishing law practice in south Florida. Drawn to and helped by the lusty Cuban Lucinda, who has her own cloudy past, Charlie works hard, in spite of his instincts, to try to get his clients exonerated, precipitating a series of shocking surprises and a bloody climactic battle.

     The language is brilliant and lush, the sex tropical, in this courtroom drama blazing with a realism seldom found in stories of the law. Here is a never-before-told tale by a new Cuban-American voice about a part of the country in the naked process of reinventing itself.