To the passengers on the ill-fated train journey from Laredo to Mexico City the vultures (zopilotes) in the sky are harbingers of menace. That menace soon takes shape in the form of a most unwanted passenger, Death, who strikes with impunity, again and again. Who will survive this terror-filled trip to its end? U. S. Customs Service agent (and amateur detective) Hugh Rennert tries to derail Death before Death derails him. Like its immediate predecessor, The Cat Screams, Vultures in the Sky was chosen as a Crime Club Selection of the month by Todd Downing's American publisher, Doubleday, Doran, when it was originally published in 1935. By turns viscerally thrilling and emotionally affecting, Vultures in the Sky also is a fairly clued tale of detection that will keep you guessing-and leave you gasping. Hop on board-if you dare-and see why the English crime fiction critic Edward Powys Mathers ("Torqeumada") pronounced that Vultures in the Sky amply confirmed his suspicion that "Mr. Downing is a born detective story writer."
