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Texana Jones #5
Death Of The Last Villista
When a video crew set to film an anniversary special commemorating a movie about the life of Pancho Villa disrupts the town of Polvo, Texas, and stirs up old memories about the original filming, which was marred by an unsolved murder, violence and terror ensues, forcing Texana Jones to find the truth. Reprint.
- GenresMystery
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 11, 2001
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Allana Martin
10 books13 followersAllana lives in Marfa, Texas, with her husband.
Her first novel, Death of a Healing Woman, won the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award.
She is a former journalism teacher.
Her first novel, Death of a Healing Woman, won the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award.
She is a former journalism teacher.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 9, 2020
Perhaps my favorite author of contemporary Texas. Wish she had written more stories featuring Texana Jones. Really liked the setting.
***
Here's a review from Kirkus:
"When it was released in 1961, Panchito, an epic about the colorful career of Pancho Villa, died a swift death at the box office, and it’s not entirely clear why producer Scott Regan now wants to return Dane Anthony and Rosalinda Pray, its surviving stars, to Polvo, Texas, for a video memorializing the film. If it’s action he’s looking for, though, he couldn’t have made a better choice. Even though Texana Jones’s trading post is the closest tiny Polvo comes to big-city culture, the reunion is beset by nonstop problems—as befits a video on such an ill-starred project as Panchito, whose technical advisor, Jacinto Trejo, had survived a childhood as a Villa conscript only to meet his death on a desolate island in the No Man’s Land between the US and Mexico as the shoot lurched toward its close. A menacing figure in a camouflage suit is lurking around the neighborhood, a trailer is set ablaze, a local child goes missing, and Texana has to confront the possibility that Trejo was murdered by her own father when he discovered Texana’s mother was in love with the aging Villista—or by one of the smiling movie types who’ve returned to her beloved town. And that’s all before somebody decides to celebrate the occasion by dispatching one of the distinguished visitors.
Texana’s fifth adventure (Death of an Evangelista, 1999, etc.) is marked as usual by a strong, unsentimental affection for its border setting and by enough neatly solved mysteries to keep Hollywood busy for years. "
***
Looking for info about the author, found this 'encyclopedia' article :
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...
Death of the Last Villista brings a television film crew to town to make a documentary on a film about Pancho Villa that was made in the area forty years earlier. The older film, not of very high quality, was notable for its inclusion of Texana Jones as a child extra. An unsolved mystery still looms over the older production, however. A film crew member, who as a boy had served with the real Villa, was murdered on a river island between Texas and Mexico. The murderer was never found. When the television crew gets to work, violence attends the filming of the new documentary, including bombings and other potentially deadly harassment. The perpetrator seems to have a connection to the past, and almost everyone involved with the documentary becomes both suspect and potential victim. Texana is drawn into both the contemporary mystery and the murder from four decades prior, in part because of a newly discovered link between her mother and the murdered man. A Publishers Weekly writer commented that the best parts of the book "are the lyrical descriptions of the setting, the gritty Texas border country along the Pecos River." Stuart Miller, writing in Booklist, called the novel "a compelling story, beautifully written and not to be missed."
***
Here's a review from Kirkus:
"When it was released in 1961, Panchito, an epic about the colorful career of Pancho Villa, died a swift death at the box office, and it’s not entirely clear why producer Scott Regan now wants to return Dane Anthony and Rosalinda Pray, its surviving stars, to Polvo, Texas, for a video memorializing the film. If it’s action he’s looking for, though, he couldn’t have made a better choice. Even though Texana Jones’s trading post is the closest tiny Polvo comes to big-city culture, the reunion is beset by nonstop problems—as befits a video on such an ill-starred project as Panchito, whose technical advisor, Jacinto Trejo, had survived a childhood as a Villa conscript only to meet his death on a desolate island in the No Man’s Land between the US and Mexico as the shoot lurched toward its close. A menacing figure in a camouflage suit is lurking around the neighborhood, a trailer is set ablaze, a local child goes missing, and Texana has to confront the possibility that Trejo was murdered by her own father when he discovered Texana’s mother was in love with the aging Villista—or by one of the smiling movie types who’ve returned to her beloved town. And that’s all before somebody decides to celebrate the occasion by dispatching one of the distinguished visitors.
Texana’s fifth adventure (Death of an Evangelista, 1999, etc.) is marked as usual by a strong, unsentimental affection for its border setting and by enough neatly solved mysteries to keep Hollywood busy for years. "
***
Looking for info about the author, found this 'encyclopedia' article :
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...
Death of the Last Villista brings a television film crew to town to make a documentary on a film about Pancho Villa that was made in the area forty years earlier. The older film, not of very high quality, was notable for its inclusion of Texana Jones as a child extra. An unsolved mystery still looms over the older production, however. A film crew member, who as a boy had served with the real Villa, was murdered on a river island between Texas and Mexico. The murderer was never found. When the television crew gets to work, violence attends the filming of the new documentary, including bombings and other potentially deadly harassment. The perpetrator seems to have a connection to the past, and almost everyone involved with the documentary becomes both suspect and potential victim. Texana is drawn into both the contemporary mystery and the murder from four decades prior, in part because of a newly discovered link between her mother and the murdered man. A Publishers Weekly writer commented that the best parts of the book "are the lyrical descriptions of the setting, the gritty Texas border country along the Pecos River." Stuart Miller, writing in Booklist, called the novel "a compelling story, beautifully written and not to be missed."
August 14, 2018
A very good entry into the Texana Jones series. In this one a movie crew comes to Texana's property to shoot a documentary of a famous film that had been shot on the land 40 years earlier. The original movie was marred by a murder that Texana decides to investigate when it hits a little too close to home. Well done, recommended to Texana Jones fans.
October 16, 2016
As with the other one I have read in this series, the best part is the rural setting (Texas/Mexico border) and the regular cast of characters. This one seemed a bit more violent than the Saint Maker--especially what happens to the main character, Texana, and her husband.
April 4, 2008
I really like this serious too bad there is not more and I can't find out anything about the author.
July 9, 2013
i absolutely love these books. can't find "anything" about the author to see if there will be any more.
July 10, 2021
Unlike Martin’s two previous books set in the same locale, this one is a bit easier to follow and the characters are more precisely delineated. You think you know who everyone is from the outset and there are a limited number of incidents to keep track of. Pay careful attention to the original cast of players in the film from 40 years previous.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews