The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz

By Manuel Ramos

Book Overview

Luis Montez is nursing a drink and licking his wounds in the Dark Knight Lounge after a bruising case. The jury took less than an hour to decide his efforts defending a client were worthless. He's on the verge of a mid-life crisis and ready to give up his law business. But the night brightens when an old friend from the Chicano student civil rights movement turns up with a beautiful woman on his arm. Teresa Fuentes, a new attorney about to start at a prestigious Denver firm, is much younger, but that doesn't keep Luis' imagination from running wild. As the weary attorney dreams about the mysterious woman and deals with his faltering law firm and an ethics investigation, he's shocked to learn another friend from the activist days is getting threats about "the old business," the murder of their friend Rocky Ruiz twenty years ago by men in white robes. And when compadres get beaten up, murdered or go into hiding, Luis can't ignore that history may be repeating itself. Are the crazy racists back to finish what they started so long ago? Is it just bad luck that Teresa's arrival in town coincides with the violence? Or is there a deeper connection? Originally published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press and reissued by Northwestern University Press in 2004, this gripping first installment in the Luis Montez Mystery series introduces readers to the Denver attorney and activist who appears in four subsequent novels.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558859853
• ISBN13: 9781558859852
• Release Date: September 2023
• Publisher: Arte Publico Press
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Crazy Hayride of a Chicano Mystery Novel

Though I'm not one for buying up every new mystery novel that comes out each year, I had a particular interest in "The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz" by Manuel Ramos because, as with Ramos, I am an attorney, a Chicano and a fiction writer. Well, I wasn't disappointed. Because this is a mystery with a fine, surprising ending, let me just say that I enjoyed the voice of the hardened, divorced, booze-loving protagonist, Luis Montez, a solo practitioner who finds his old friends from El Movimiento - the Chicano political movement - dying all around him. Throw in a beautiful, mysterious Chicana and things really start hopping. This short, tight novel will keep you guessing until the last pages. I highly recommend this book.