Desert Roses
Two women. One deadly enemy. And a town where girls keep disappearing.
1949, Taos, New Mexico. Luc a Torres and Luz Morales came to the high desert to escape the violence of their past. They survived corruption in El Paso, betrayal in Los Angeles, and losses that would have broken lesser women. They thought Taos would give them peace.
They were wrong.
Young Hispanic women are vanishing without a trace. The local sheriff won't lift a finger to investigate. When Don Tom s Archuleta's granddaughter Mar a becomes the latest to disappear, he turns to the only people desperate enough to help: two ex-cops with everything to prove and nothing left to lose.
What starts as a missing person case spirals into something far darker-a human trafficking network stretching from Taos to Ju rez, protected by money, power, and men who see women as disposable inventory. The trail leads through cantinas and brothels, through the desperate and the damned, through a town that profits from looking the other way.
But Luc a and Luz aren't alone in this fight. They build an unlikely family: Paloma, the fierce Apache bartender who knows every secret in Taos; Carmen, the cantina owner with her own brutal history; Antonio, the honest cop willing to risk his badge; and a network of chosen family who understand what it means to survive in a world designed to erase them.
Then Luc a sees a name that stops her cold: Mitchell. The fixer who murdered her partner in El Paso and walked away clean. The man she's hunted for years. He's running the trafficking ring, and this time there's nowhere left for him to run.
The investigation becomes a manhunt. The manhunt becomes war. And Luc a must decide how far she'll go for vengeance-and whether justice and survival can ever be the same thing.
Desert Roses is the second book in the Torres & Morales Investigations series, a hard-boiled detective noir set in the American Southwest. Featuring bisexual and lesbian protagonists, polyamorous relationships, and unflinching examination of violence against women in 1940s America, this LGBTQ+ mystery thriller delivers Raymond Chandler-style prose with a queer Chicana twist.
Perfect for readers who love strong female leads, atmospheric historical settings, found family, and detective fiction that doesn't pull its punches.
Content advisory: Contains explicit violence, sexual content, depictions of human trafficking, attempted sexual assault, and strong language. Intended for mature readers.
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