Award-winning translator and author David Bowles brings together twenty-five darkly memorable stories of the southern borderlands of Texas, retold in his unique voice. Ranging from the age-old folktales heard at his grandmother's knee to urban legends collected down the years, each of these narratives is brought to stunning visual life by artist Jose Melendez. An appendix classifies the pieces and enumerates motifs."

Who protects our precious fields of corn? What leaps from the darkness when you least suspect it? Which spirit waits for little kids by rivers and lakes? From the ahuizotl to the xocoyoles-and all the imps, ghosts and witches in between-this illustrated bilingual encyclopedia tells you just what you need to know about the things that go bump in the night in Mexico and the US Southwest. Quien protege nuestras milpas preciosas? Que cosa salta de la oscuridad cuando menos te lo esperes? Cual espiritu acecha a los pequenos cerca de los rios y los lagos? Desde el ahuizotl a los xocoyoles-y demas...

Tradition meets tragedy in the chilling local lore of the Rio Grande Valley. Hidden in the dense brush and around oxbow lakes wait sinister secrets, unnerving vestiges of the past and wraiths of those claimed by the winding river. The spirit of a murdered student in Brownsville paces the locker room where she met her end. Tortured souls of patients lost in the Harlingen Insane Asylum refuse to be forgotten. Guests at the LaBorde Hotel in Rio Grande City report visions of the Red Lady, who was spurned by the soldier she loved and driven to suicide. Author David Bowles explores these and more...

When the volcano Popocatepetl erupts, a massive, reptilian monster crawls out of the caldera and begins attacking Mexico City. Unable to stop it, the military calls on Elena Baz, a disabled physicist who consults with the Mexican Army. Dr. Baz gathers a team of the greatest scientific minds, searching for a way to bring the behemoth down. But as the kaiju leaves a swath of destruction across Central Mexico, other volcanoes grow more and more active. Now the nation's only hope lies with Alfonso Becerra, an indigenous anthropologist with radical fringe ideas. Elena and Alfonso will have to...

Tradition meets tragedy in the chilling local lore of the Rio Grande Valley. Hidden in the dense brush and around oxbow lakes wait sinister secrets, unnerving vestiges of the past and wraiths of those claimed by the winding river. The spirit of a murdered student in Brownsville paces the locker room where she met her end. Tortured souls of patients lost in the Harlingen Insane Asylum refuse to be forgotten. Guests at the LaBorde Hotel in Rio Grande City report visions of the Red Lady, who was spurned by the soldier she loved and driven to suicide. Author David Bowles explores these and more...

Cholos and alien hordes. Undead luchadores. Children trapped in animal form. Legless Vampires. Aztec merchant spies. A deadly ancient codex. From a pre-Colombian wilderness to ice-choked future, from haunted borderlands to post-apocalyptic ruins and all the lush but vicious worlds between, these fifteen tales reveal the hidden courage, despair, and depravity of people forced to face the darkness. Some overcome. A few surrender. The rest are consumed by vengeance.