A few words about One Bloody Shirt at a Time Margarita Ricos is not just any deputy. She's smart. She's courageous. She's a twenty-five-year-old Chicana with attitude who grew up on the edge of the United States in Terlingua, Texas. There, the peoples and cultures of two countries are blended, more than separated, by the once-fierce Rio Grande. Terlingua is an unincorporated settlement built around a mercury mining ghost town of the same name. It lies in the southern part of Brewster County, the largest county in the largest state in the lower forty-eight. It has more square miles than...

Take one sharp, determined deputy and ask her to solve a mystery that has not been solved in thirty years. Stir in a disgruntled local chauvinist, a tourist who disappears while camping near Big Bend National Park, a sexy new waiter in Lajitas, a foray into the nightlife of a nearby Mexican town, a tall and handsome millionaire, a herd of wild pintos, a ferocious blizzard, a bloody one-car crash, and an abandoned mercury mining town. Sprinkle with the awe-inspiring scenery of the Big Bend area, starry desert nights, a little hawk-watching, and the drop-dead beauty of Wyoming. Mix it all...