Shes short, round, and pushing forty, but Julia Kalas is a damned good criminal. For seventeen years she renovated historic California buildings as a laundry front for her husbands illegal arms business. Then the Aryan Brotherhood made her a widow, and witness protection shipped her off to the tiny town of Azula, Texas. Also known as the Middle of Nowhere. The Lone Star sticks are lousy with vintage architecture begging to be rehabbed, so Julia figures shell just pick up where she left off, but shes got a federal watchdog now: Azulas hard-nosed police chief Teresa Hallstedt, who is none too happy to have another felon in her jurisdiction. Teresa wants Julia where she can keep an eye on her, which turns out to be behind the bar at the local watering hole. The bars owner, retired fighter Hector Guerra, catches Julias eye, so she takes the job. Before he can catch any more of her, they find a dead body on the bars roof. Enter taciturn county sheriff John Maines, who begins trying to pin the murder on Hector for reasons that Julia soon discovers are both personal and nefarious. Unfortunately, the evidence cooperates, but Julias finely-honed bullshit detector tells her Hector isnt a killer. She risks reconnecting with the outlaw underground to prove it, and learns the hard way that shes not nearly as tough -- or as right -- as she thinks she is.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 05:39:00 +0000