Sonny Baca Novels

4 primary works • 5 total works

Zia Summer

by Rudolfo Anaya

Published 1 October 1996

p>"[Rudolfo Anaya] continues to shine brightest with his trademark alchemy: blending Spanish, Mexican and Indian cultures to evoke the distinctively fecund spiritual terrain of his part of the Southwest. Here Sonny Baca, a 30-year-old fledgling PI, investigates the murder of his . . . cousin [Gloria] who many years before had introduced him to love. Gloria's husband is worried most about the effect of the gruesome death (Gloria's body is found drained of blood, with a zia sun sign carved on her stomach) on his mayoral campaign in Albuquerque. Sonny believes Gloria's spirit calls to him for vengeance and pursues the case throughout New Mexico's South Valley, from the cocktail-party circuit of the arts community and the company of monied business developers to an assemblage of witches in an environmentalist commune in the mountains. . . ."--Publisher's Weekly

". . . a compelling thriller. . . . Though satisfying purely as a mystery, the novel sacrifices none of Anaya's trademark spirituality--a connectedness to the earth and a deep-seated respect for the traditions of a people and a culture. . . . Read this multidimensional novel for its rich language and full-bodied characters. Anaya is one of our greatest storytellers, and Zia Summer is muy caliente!"--Booklist

Rio Grande Fall

by Rudolfo Anaya

Published 30 September 2008

"When a woman dies after falling from a hot-air balloon at Albuquerque's world-famous balloon fiesta, private investigator Sonny Baca's intuition tells him it's murder. His intuition also tells him that the murder is the work of the Raven, the leader of a violent cult that murdered Sonny's cousin, and a man Sonny thought he'd killed. The murder jeopardizes the millions of tourist dollars connected with the fiesta, but Sonny knows the Raven has more on his mind than simple mayhem. This is a completely entertaining mystery novel, but Anaya actually offers two parallel lands of enchantment. One is temporal New Mexico; the other is Nuevo Mexicano, a land of santos, milagros, spirits, visions, and even brujas (witches). It's a land of old ways, old values, and old wisdom. And it's a land where small farms and multigenerational families are fast being wiped out by modernity."--Booklist

Shaman Winter

by Rudolfo Anaya

Published 28 February 2009

This third installment of Rudolfo Anaya's ""Sonny Baca"" mystery series has the private detective confined to a wheelchair. Brutal battles with his nemesis Raven have taken their toll and Baca is struggling to regain his health. Nights of fitful sleep and intermittent dreams introduce Owl Woman, one of Sonny's ancestors and the sixteenth-century daughter of a shaman. As Sonny sleeps, Raven abducts Owl Woman and soon, one by one, each of Sonny's forebears begin to disappear. Immobilizing Sonny physically was Raven's first goal; now he wants to destroy Sonny's soul by erasing his history.

Jemez Spring

by Rudolfo Anaya

Published 30 March 2005

When the governor of New Mexico is found drowned in the Bath House at Jemez Springs, Albuquerque private eye Sonny Baca is called in to investigate. As he soon learns, murder is only the beginning of the evil that Sonny must sort out. Someone has planted a bomb in the Valles Caldera, not far from the Los Alamos National Laboratories, and it is set to detonate in just a few hours. Is this the work of terrorists or is Sonny's old nemesis, Raven, mixed up in the plot? In a race against the clock Sonny encounters ghosts and sorcerers, beautiful women and environmental activists, and developers and politicians who are quarrelling over the state's most precious resource, its water.

The Sonny Baca Novels

by Rudolfo Anaya

Published 25 October 2016