On Jean-Luc Godard's film "breathless"

A father comforts his son at bedtime by singing the turtledove song his own mother once sang to him in hopes that the child will awake refreshed and secure in the knowledge that he is loved.

Technically speaking the novel uses the first person and begins with one traditional narrator changing to two to finally sublime into pure dialogs. It is the story of two eternal lovers both on their way from the time before time into the time beyond life, beyond time, beyond the beyond, into their eternal time of two souls in one being. The protagonists are the Haitian Eve Renée Marguerite Dorleac, born Hirsch, and the Colombian Nicolás Rubén Jaramillo Sarmiento during their common and intensive moments in Europe. Both belong to a land of magic where they exist above and apart from reality. Both are possessed of each other and are protected by a set of wise and benevolent loas called Rada. The key years of the pilgrimage are 1968, 1988 and 2008.

Willie Cuesta wears tropical shirts, cool linen slacks, and Mexican sandals to ward off the Florida heat. Formerly a Miami Police Department detective, he now works as chief of security at his brotherÍs salsa club while he waits for new clients at his detective agency in Little Havana. After meeting Fiona Bonaventura, Willie quickly realizes that her predicament isnÍt a straight forward missing-persons case. The elegant Argentinean is convinced that she has found her dead sisterÍs daughter. Her sister Sonia disappeared during ArgentinaÍs ñdirty warî more than twenty years ago, but her pregnant body was never found. Fiona has never stopped searching for her sisterÍs child, and several times has been steps away from finding the girl she is convinced is her niece. This time she has tracked the girl to Miami, and Fiona is determined not to lose her again. As Willie delves into the case, a host of shady characters surface with ties to the Argentinean military dictatorship responsible for the death and disappearance of thousands of citizens: Sarah Ingram, who teaches tango in a dance studio in a quiet, suburban neighborhood; her polo-playing husband who makes it clear he wonÍt tolerate questions about his intelligence work in Argentina years ago; a terrified man who survived torture and imprisonment during the ñdirty warî and may be able to identify some of his torturers if he can set his fear aside; and even an Argentine diplomat. When people associated with the case start turning up dead and Willie finds himself held captive in the back of an SUV, he knows for sure that death squads from another time and place have arrived in Miami. As the vehicle careens through the pre-dawn streets of Miami, Willie Cuesta must hang on desperately as his latest case spirals out of control.

Two parents die and two families mourn, in very different ways. Amateur sleuth Steve Levitan and his clue-sniffing golden retriever Rochester face two deaths in the 12th full-length novel in this long-running series. An Alzheimer’s patient slips away from home on his own and tumbles into the Delaware River. And then Steve’s love Lili suffers the crushing loss of her mother in a Miami Beach hospital. Eckhardt Lalor left behind a fortune in real estate, a fractured family, and a bitter legacy as a city slumlord. Does that add up to murder? There’s no question of what killed Benita Weinstock—a dodgy heart—but her death rocks her daughter’s world, and Steve’s. It will be up to Rochester to solve the crime and heal his humans in this new mystery with heart -- and fur!

Explores the resounding musical performances of Mexican American women such as Chelo Silva, Eva Ybarra, Eva Garza, and Selena within Tejano/Chicano music