A hundred years ago Francis Schlatter was one of the best-known figures in the Southwest. In this gripping and powerful narrative, based on contemporary newspaper accounts and a memoir that Schlatter dictated, Beasley, Jr. reconstructs the life and times of this remarkable man.

Hoby Tibbs, a forty-one-year-old hamburger cook, has a secret-he has the power to cure bad hamburger meat. His gift is timely-an epidemic of ptomaine poisoning has infected the hamburger parlors of the American Southwest that threatens to alter the eating habits of the entire population. With the grit and determination of a latter-day knight, Hoby rides forth to do battle with the pernicious microbes. In pursuit of this quest, he discovers the ptomaine outbreak is not the product of natural causes, but rather part of a devious plot by fast-food moguls to corner the franchise industry. This...

Navvy Dypes is twenty-seven years old and lives at the bottom of a swimming pool in Palm Springs, California. By an "act of will," he has changed himself into a fish-complete with gills and scales-much to the chagrin of his father, who devises an insidious cure for his son's affliction. But Navvy is determined to retain his new identity, for it is only in the water that his consciousness expands beyond the limits of the human sensibility. A trip to Ensenada, Mexico, reveals a message concealed in the bust of Miguel Hidalgo that promises him the ability to communicate to all creatures, great...