From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Foster (The Dig; Interlopers; etc.) elevates this well-paced, hard-boiled SF police procedural through the use of a highly imaginative setting the sprawling Montezuma Strip, which stretches along the old U.S.-Mexican border and constitutes "the western hemisphere's largest concentration of industry, commerce, assemblage, cutting-edge technology, and trouble." When police inspector Angel Cardenas investigates the case of a male corpse found with most of its internal organs missing ("They'd left the heart. Not much of a demand for hearts these days. Not with good, cheap artificial models flooding the market"), the victim turns out to have had two identities one as a local executive, the other as a Texas businessman. The plot thickens when the victim's booby-trapped house nearly kills Cardenas and his partner. After a few more near escapes, they establish that the corpse's "wife and daughter" are actually Surtsey and Katla Mockerkin, the ex-wife and 12-year-old daughter of crime lord Cleator Mockerkin, who wants them back in (literally) the worst way. By now Cardenas is sufficiently determined to follow them to Central America, aided by his training as an almost telepathic intuit. The amazingly versatile author plays with a full deck of futuristic elements notably, sapient apes led by gorillas and intelligent rogue computers that commit computer crimes. An ambiguous but nonetheless satisfying ending leaves open the possibility of another story about Inspector Cardenas. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Prolific author of perennial best sellers (e.g., The Dig), Foster offers an entertaining cross between the police procedural and sf genres. Angel Cardenas of the Namerican States Federales is a police inspector whose beat is the Strip, a megalopolis that encompasses Mexico and part of what used to be the United States. A routine investigation of what appears to be a mugging death soon leads to something unlike anything Cardenas has ever encountered, and he needs all of his considerable skills to track down the body and penetrate the wake of death that surrounds the victim's wife, Surtsey, and her daughter, Katla. Several parties are criminally intent on harming the women; Cardenas wants to find out why and how to protect them. Cardenas is an appealing character, and his antagonists are as colorful as they are imaginatively deadly. The only stiff character is 12-year-old Katla, who, even accounting for her renowned precociousness, comes across flat. But Foster makes up for that with a richly envisioned future of high-tech urban sprawl that calls to mind a less dystopian Blade Runner. For general fiction and sf collections.- Devon Thomas, Hass MS&L, Ann Arbor, MI Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
A couple of decades ago, Foster was known primarily as the author of science fiction and fantasy novels aimed at younger readers, novelizations of movies (Starman, Alien), and installments in popular series (the Star Trek log books, an Alien Nation novel). Over the years, he's broadened his scope, producing original, gripping novels for adults. This story, set not too far in the future, features a police inspector trying to sort out a rather unusual murder: a recently discovered corpse seems to belong to two men. So who's really dead? And how can Angel Cardenas find the truth when everyone connected to the victim(s) appears to have gone missing? The novel has a solid plot, but what makes it interesting is the detailed dialect the author has devised. Like Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, this novel comes with a glossary to help readers translate the characters' slang (a combination of English and Spanish, mostly). Peppered with clever new technology and offbeat characters, the book successfully crosses genres and will appeal to both mystery and sf fans. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
DEATH TRAP Whirling, Inspector Cardenas broke into a desperate sprint. He shouted as he burst out of the hallway, racing for the front door, his lungs pounding. Observing the expression on his partner's face, the sergeant erupted from the couch where he had been relaxing, scattering hardzine and peanuts in several directions. Cardenas's hand reached for the door handle. There was no door handle. He had not looked to see if one was present when they had entered the house. It was, after all, a not unnatural assumption that there would be a matching handle on the inside of the door. But there was nothing, only smooth, wood-grained composite. Nor did the barrier before him respond to verbal command, or the anxious press of hands. From behind them, from somewhere within the distant bedroom, a feminine voice chillingly declared, "Almost ready. I hope you're not getting too bored waiting for me." Then the house blew up. Renowned for his complex, vivid worlds of science fiction, Alan Dean Foster, bestselling author of The Commonwealth and Spellsinger novels, here takes readers to the hard-boiled, high-tech, and fever-hot streets of the Montezuma Strip-a Mexamerican megalopolis of mayhem and murder... HOMBRES MUY MALOS Inspector Angel Cardenas has seen murdered corpses like George Anderson's, but never a case like this. The victim's ID doesn't match his DNA, Anderson's wife and preteen daughter, Katla, are missing, their home has been turned into a time bomb-and mobs from three continents are all hunting Katla. Relying on his training as a nearly telepathic intuit, Cardenas embarks on a search for clues that leads him from the Strip's sex parlors and stimstick clubs, where kids are deadly and music can kill, to an undersea hideout where computer crimes are committed by criminal computers. Yet the closer Cardenas gets to the girl, the closer assassins are getting to them both...


Download Description
Angel Cardenas is a hard-working police detective in 21st century Los Angeles, which has become a gritty, sprawling metropolis that stretches from southern California all the way past the Mexican border to the Gulf of Mexico. Cardenas has one special talent that makes his job easier: he's an "intuit," capable of intuiting what others will do in any given situation. His new case begins when a seemingly innocuous businessman is found dead, missing his vital organs-which bring good money on the black market-and all his money. Cardenas is nearly killed when he visits the victim's home and the house explodes, and new questions quickly arise. Where are the woman and the young girl who had been living in the home? And why doesn't the victim's I.D. match his DNA scan? The deeper he gets into the case, the more puzzled Cardenas becomes. He crisscrosses L.A. looking for clues among the kid-gang underworld, the high-tech, highly illegal black market, an American Indian crime syndicate, and other fascinating settings-all in search of The Mock, a stone-cold killer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Angel Cardenas is an LAPD detective who possesses a remarkable intuitive gift. Nevertheless, he is confronted with a murder case that makes no sense at all: A slain businessman has been deprived of not only his money but all his vital organs as well. When Cardenas goes to the victim's house, he himself is nearly killed by an unexplained explosion. And that's not all. Witnesses are missing; the forensics don't match; and the L.A. underworlds are crackling with danger.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Inspector Angel Cardenas has seen plenty of corpses like the one in Quetzal inurb - just another Juan Doe robbed of his cash, cards, internal organs, and then dumped in a gutter. However, Cardenas soon learns this particular murder is anything but ordinary..." "First, the infallible DNA-ID database insists the cadaver is that of two people - local executive George Anderson and a mysterious Texas businessman. Then Anderson's wife and daughter, Surtsey Mockerkin and Katla, turn up missing, their posh suburban home has been retrofitted into a huge time bomb...and at least three mob syndicates from as many continents are competing to capture or kill twelve-year-old Katla." Who was the dead man, and why is his daughter being hunted? Relying on his training as a nearly telepathic intuit, Inspector Cardenas embarks on a search that leads him from the sex parlors and stimstick clubs of the Strip - where kids are deadly and even music can kill - to an undersea control room where computer crimes are committed by criminal computers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Foster (The Dig; Interlopers; etc.) elevates this well-paced, hard-boiled SF police procedural through the use of a highly imaginative setting the sprawling Montezuma Strip, which stretches along the old U.S.-Mexican border and constitutes "the western hemisphere's largest concentration of industry, commerce, assemblage, cutting-edge technology, and trouble." When police inspector Angel Cardenas investigates the case of a male corpse found with most of its internal organs missing ("They'd left the heart. Not much of a demand for hearts these days. Not with good, cheap artificial models flooding the market"), the victim turns out to have had two identities one as a local executive, the other as a Texas businessman. The plot thickens when the victim's booby-trapped house nearly kills Cardenas and his partner. After a few more near escapes, they establish that the corpse's "wife and daughter" are actually Surtsey and Katla Mockerkin, the ex-wife and 12-year-old daughter of crime lord Cleator Mockerkin, who wants them back in (literally) the worst way. By now Cardenas is sufficiently determined to follow them to Central America, aided by his training as an almost telepathic intuit. The amazingly versatile author plays with a full deck of futuristic elements notably, sapient apes led by gorillas and intelligent rogue computers that commit computer crimes. An ambiguous but nonetheless satisfying ending leaves open the possibility of another story about Inspector Cardenas. (Aug. 8) Forecast: A national print publicity campaign that includes the mystery market should pick up plenty of noir readers in addition to Foster fans. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal