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"Powerful opening police procedural"

Desperate for work, Marcos agrees to sail from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico with nine illegal immigrants on board. However, a wary and worried Marcos leaves his small hometown with twenty-two passengers in his hold and not much of his prepayment. They reach their destination with everyone, including Marcos dead, their bodies washing ashore.

Luis Gonzalo, Sheriff of Angustias since the early 1970s, knows that recently the drug traffickers discovered his seaside town forcing the mayor to double the staff from three to six. Near retirement veteran Emilio Collazo and rookie Rosa Almodovar form one team. Computer guru Iris Calderon and wild man Hector Paredo are paired. Luis and San Juan transfer Abel Fernandez form the third squad. However, instead of just dealing with druggies and the occasional murder of passion (seven homicides since Luis joined the force in the sixties), the six cops finds themselves investigating a mass murder of illegal immigrants. The inquiry is further complicated by seemingly every other law enforcement organization preferring the case washed out to the sea rather than solved.

PRECINCT PUERTO RICO: BOOK ONE is a powerful opening police procedural that will remind the audience of the 87th Precinct novels. The story line is loaded with action as the three police teams investigate the major homicide case as well as what now appears to them as minor crimes. The deep personalities of the characters enable the audience to delineate each member of the sheriff's office and several prime secondary players too. Steven Torres provides a strong debut of a new series that sub-genre readers will welcome.

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted May 12, 2002

In his years as sheriff of Angustias, a small town nestled in Puerto Rico's mountainous heart, Luis Gonzalo has seen his share of violence. People kill for love and money in Angustias just as they do anywhere else. But it is during a visit to his wife's family in the seaside town of Rincon that Gonzalo encounters his greatest challenge.

A midnight call brings Gonzalo to a beach where bodies are washing ashore, victims of a shipwreck, victims of the illegal traffic in humans from the Dominican Republic. When he discovers evidence that the shipwreck was no accident, that the ship's captain was murdered, Gonzalo's life is threatened. When he discovers proof that Puerto Rican police were involved in the deaths of the illegal immigrants, the lives of his wife and children are threatened. The murder of one of his deputies brings Gonzalo no closer to the bottom of this mystery-a mystery no other law enforcement agency wants to help him solve.

The first in a series of police procedural mysteries featuring Luis Gonzalo and the citizens and cops of Angustias, Precinct Puerto Rico: Book One is a brilliant beginning to a continuing story from a long overdue locale.