Dead dinosaurs

Luis Balam, full-blooded Mayan and ex-policeman turned part-time tour guide and sometime detective, returns with his sidekicks, policeman Hector Salgado Reyes and womanizing attorney Ricardo Martinez Rodriguez, in Gary Alexander's second witty, entertaining mystery set in Mexico's Yucatan paradise. Luis and his friends are still trying to scratch out a marginal existence by getting their small share of the ubiquitous Yanqui dollar, and as always, trying to do business with the foolish gringos turns out to be more trouble than it's worth. First Ricky Rodriguez drives up to Luis's souvenir shop in a candy-apple red Jeep with Vance Dugdale, a North American dressed like a desert explorer. Dugdale wants to open a Dead Dinosaurs theme park outside Luis's village - a surefire moneymaker, he claims, although Balam isn't so sure. He's even less sure, however, when Hector Salgado presents another crazy American client, Bob Chance, who apparently ran out on his partner with the proceeds from a winning lottery ticket and is now running for his life. As it turns out, of course, neither Dugdale nor Chance is quite who he seems. Luis finds himself a lot more deeply involved than is healthy. And unbridled greed leads inevitably to murder in the lush, tropical corruption of Mexico's tourist playground.