When retired U.S. Customs Bureau inspector Samuel Adams White (to his ex-wife, "the most boring human being") is abducted south of the border by Mexican drug smugglers, he is given the chance to flee for his life. Desperately trying to reach the border, he is pursued across the deserts of rural Mexico. Through a series of hair-raising adventures, the inspector discovers self-reliance, resourcefulness, the reality of the natural world-and of romance. The reader discovers the profound differences, as well as their origins and implications, between Mexican culture and that of El Norte, her neighbor across the Rio Grande. The tale is suffused with Williamson's understanding of and sympathy for a people among whom he is well traveled.

Chilton Williamson, Jr.    

"Few stories of pursuit proceed apace with such sure handedness. On the one hand, this novel is an old-fashioned adventure story; on the other it is complex fiction that reveals much about life in present-day Mexico and in the United States along the border.

Chilton Williamson, . . .who knows the Southwest with minute exactness-its terrain, its weather, its wildlife-has given his readers and exciting and memorable narrative that is beautifully detailed and superbly realized."
                                         -George Garrett

"Mexico has genius for evoking our loves and fears. This dreamlike novella crosses the line and takes us into the Mexico we crave and dread and cannot seem to do without. The U.S. agent takes a bribe and winds up kidnapped and waiting for his execution when he finally finds a clue as to why he feels empty and dead while still alive. And so begins to find the path to life itself."
                                       -Charles Bowden

"Williamson couches what might have been a simple contemporary western thriller in so much lovely scene painting that it's remarkable how well he maintains suspense (and lets it slacken) and how economically he realizes vivid characters. A most impressive and intelligent little novel."
                                  -Ray Olson, Booklist