Missing

April 6, 2015
This uninspired crime novel from Hawken (Tequila Sunset) hits the right notes but falls short of the standard set by his earlier books, all of which take place along the Texas-Mexico border. Jack Searle, a middle-aged widower, does his best to raise his two half-Mexican teenage daughters on what small-time contracting and handyman gigs he can get around Laredo, Tex. Heâs careful to maintain his daughtersâ connection to their Mexican side of the family and makes regular visits with them across the border. When his older daughter, Marina, disappears with her cousin at a concert in Nuevo Laredo, Searle finds himself drawn into the cityâs complex and violent underbelly. As the weeks pass with no word from the ineffectual local police, an increasingly desperate Searle decides to take matters into his own hands. While Hawken knows the border country well and writes convincingly about its sociopolitical aspects, stock characters and situations give this effort a paint-by-the-numbers feel. Agent: Svetlana Pironko, Author Rights Agency.

April 15, 2015
Hawken changes locales from El PasoCiudad Juarez (Tequila Sunset, 2014) to LaredoNuevo Laredo, but his focus on character and the troubled U.S.-Mexico border remains. His main character here, Jack Searle, is a single parent raising two teenage Mexican American stepdaughters. His life consists of working to support his family, and parenting. Once a month, he and Marina and Lidia cross the border to visit the girls' relatives. After one visit, 17-year-old Marina asks permission to go to a concert in Nuevo Laredo with her cousin. Jack reflexively says no, but Marina patiently wears him down. Both girls disappear. Jack notifies Nuevo Laredo police and the U.S. consulate, but his anguish compels him to search for the girls himself. Hawken reveals Jack as a man trying through force of will to do the right thing, and his depictions of these border cities are subtly portentous. Nuevo Laredo is besieged by cartels, violent crime, federal police, the army, poverty, and despair. Laredo is oppressively awash with undocumented immigrants and border police. Hawken is a powerful storyteller, and his latest should be required reading for anyone following border noir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)