Death in the Desert

Chekhov once said, "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it," and R. L. Coffield uses this technique masterly in her criminal drama, "Death in the Desert". The book opens with detective Ben Thomas investigating the Cactus Murders in the Arizona desert when he comes upon an illegal immigrant holding her two dead children. Ominously, from the hills above this heat blanched valley, two antagonists, Jake Starr and Bill Passkey with murky pasts look on as ...