While recovering from a heart attack, gay Mexican-American attorney Henry Rios comes to the aid of his long-lost niece, the illegitimate daughter of his estranged sister, who has confessed to the murder of her abusive husband, but during his investigation, Rios discovers that things are more complicated than he had thought. 12,500 first printing. The good news is that Henry Rios, the hero of several of Michael Nava's earlier thrillers ( The Death of Friends , The Burning Plain ) is back. The bad news, spelled out in the acknowledgments, is that "this book brings to an end this series of mysteries and my career as a mystery writer." If this is your first exposure to the author or his hero, you'll be as sorry to read the end note as Nava's justly deserved fan club. Rios, a gay Hispanic lawyer, has been described as an "outsider" hero, dedicated to finding justice in a world where it seems to be a highly perishable commodity. His keen intelligence is matched by his vulnerability, in this case to the emotional demands placed on him by a sudden heart attack that leaves him wondering whether life is still worth living, and the news that his sister, a former nun, once had a daughter, who has been found and then lost again. Tracing Vicky and her 10-year-old son Angel isn't that difficult for Henry. An abused woman hiding from a violent ex-husband doesn't have that many ways to disappear. But there's something about Vicky that doesn't fit the abuse profile, and when she's charged with killing Angel's father, Henry is torn between his desire to free her and his sense that there's more to the story than she's telling him. There is, of course, but it's the multidimensionality of his central characters rather than the mysteries they're caught up in that drive Nava's perceptive, brilliantly explicated novels. Love in its many guises drives this one--love between Henry and John, the first man to touch Rios's heart in many years, and love for Angel, the nephew in whom he sees a chance to redeem his own unhappy childhood. Nava leaves his series hero in their good hands, with a new career as a judge ahead of him. And he leaves his devoted readers hoping he'll change his mind and bring Henry back again, perhaps this time from the bench instead of the bar. --Jane Adams Gay Mexican American lawyer Henry Rios suffers a severe heart attack at age 49, but his brush with death reconciles his estranged sister to him and precipitates contact with a new lover. Most importantly, he meets his sister's given-up-for-adoption daughter Vicky and her young son Angelito. When police arrest Vicky for murdering her addicted and allegedly abusive husband, Henry takes her case and cares for the troubled boy. Tricky complications ensue: ambiguous crime-scene findings, possible gangbanger revenge, gay relationship issues, etc. A super plot, memorable characters, and touching prose makes this essential for fans, especially since this is the final novel in the series. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. When criminal defense attorney Henry Rios suffers a myocardial infarction, he utters his estranged sister's name just before his heart stops. When he comes around, Elena is with him, and within days the siblings have rebonded. Secrets come out, of course, the most momentous being Elena's revelation that she has an adult daughter she has never met. That situation changes posthaste, as Vicky and her 10-year-old son, Angel, show up on Elena's doorstep, fleeing, it seems, from the boy's father. After several days, mother and son vanish, only to pop up at Henry's door and eventually repeat their disappearing act. Not for long, though: Henry soon gets a panicky call from the boy telling him that his mother has killed his father. Henry prepares Vicky's defense, which proves harder and more dangerous than it first appears. Nava says this is the last mystery he intends to write, though not that this is the last we'll see of his acutely appealing gay hero, who has a new lover and a judgeship at this book's end. Ray Olson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Nava is part of a breed of writers who have broken through the limitations of the mystery genre. -- San Francisco Chronicle Michael Nava's award-winning novels also include The Little Death , Goldenboy , How Town , The Hidden Law , The Death of Friends , and The Burning Plain . Nava is a lawyer in San Francisco. Nava creates a dense and intense landscape...an acute sounding of the confusing cultural intersections that mark our contemporary society.