Choke Point

Roscoe Brinker #2

by James C. Mitchell

On the streets of Tucson, Arizona, a riot breaks out after a basketball game and a man is shot dead in the street. He carries no identification, and the usual police checks---fingerprints and an artist's sketch---provide nothing. Was this a case of police brutality, or did someone use the riot to conceal a murder? April Lennox, a young reporter from L.A., has a theory, and she turns to private detective Roscoe Brinker for help.

April received a call from Mexico a few days earlier---a call from a man promising a story of oppression and murder. They arranged to meet the night of the riot. He didn't show, and April now suspects that her informant and the murder victim are one and the same.

She needs Brinker's connections in Tucson and across the border, but after being shot and nearly killed in Mexico, he's less than eager to go back. New information and a little bit of charm finally wear him down, and Brinker decides to take on her case. Before he can join her, April uncovers a personal connection to the murder. She heads south and doesn't come back.

On the trail of the clues she's left behind, Brinker returns to Mexico only to find something darker and more dangerous than he'd ever imagined.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Alison Horn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why people might like it better than I did, but I didn't relate to the characters. It's wasn't a bad book, just not for me.

[Lacey Hylton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book, I liked it because it talked a lot about the city I live in. They mention the U of A basketball team, alot of our city and streets, the Mission and back forth between Tucson, Nogales and California so I liked it!!

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a riot breaks out in Tucson after a basketball game and a man is shot. No ID. April Lennox, a reporter, turns to PI Brinker for help.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#2 in the Roscoe Brinker series. Excellent thriller tying a murder after a UofA basketball game to a series of murders of workers at maquiladoras in Nogales across the border from Tucson. Without #1 Lovers Crossing (2003) the relationship between Brinker and Dolores seems disconnected.

Roscoe Brinker series - Refusing to accompany an idealistic reporter into Mexico to cover a story, private investigator Brinker becomes involved when the reporter is murdered, a case for which he infiltrates a corrupt underworld with ties on both sides of the border.