Duarte's latest novel is based on a string of real-life murders in Ciudad Jurez in the 1990s. Forced out of the house by her alcoholic mother, 13-year-old Evita takes to the streets, glimpsing newspaper columns about the murders, while struggling to survive. Petra, Evita's comely 19-year-old cousin, exchanges the country life for gritty Jurez to raise money for her ailing father. An acquaintance of Petra, Mayela, a 12-year-old Tarahumara Indian, lives in an orphanage where her artistic talent is discovered.

It's the summer of 1998 and for five years over a hundred mangled and desecrated bodies have been found dumped in the Chihuahua desert outside of Juárez, México, just across the river from El Paso, Texas. The perpetrators of the ever-rising number of violent deaths target poor young women, terrifying inhabitants on both sides of the border. El Paso native Ivon Villa has returned to her hometown to adopt the baby of Cecilia, a pregnant maquiladora worker in Juárez. When Cecilia turns up strangled and disemboweled in the desert, Ivon is thrown into the churning chaos of abuse and murder. Even as the rapes and killings of "girls from the south" continue, their tragic stories written in desert blood, a conspiracy covers up the crimes that implicate everyone from the Maquiladora Association to the Border Patrol. When Ivon's younger sister gets kidnapped in Juárez, Ivon knows that it's up to her to find her sister, whatever it takes. Despite the sharp warnings she gets from family, friends, and nervous officials, Ivon's investigation moves her deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of silence. From acclaimed poet and prose-writer Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood is a gripping thriller that ponders the effects of patriarchy, gender identity, border culture, transnationalism, and globalization on an international crisis.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang2057\fs18 For the last nine years, the city of Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico has been the centre of an ongoing phenomenon of female homicides, referenced in Spanish as femicidios or las muertas de Juarez ("the dead women of Juarez"). As of February 2005 more than 370 bodies have been recovered, with over 400 women still missing, according to Amnesty International. The BBC News reported in November 2005 that 28 women had been murdered so far in 2005. \par \par As for who is behind the murders, the answer remains unknown. Despite numerous arrests over the last few years, the killings continue, leading the Mexican police and the general public to consider many theories, among them that the original killer or killers are in jail and copycats have moved to the area since. Furthermore, there has been speculation that there has been a conspiracy of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians. \par \par \i\fs20 Daughters of Juarez\i0\fs18 will be the first, major non-fiction work to examine the Juarez murders. In it, authors Rodriguez, Montane and Pulitzer will focus on retelling the stories of three missing women and of their families' plight to find the responsible killer or killers. As this story begins to land on the front pages of national papers such as \i\fs20 The New York Times\i0\fs18, this book will become a staple of required reading on the case for years to come. \par }

Ciudad Juarez lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. A once-thriving border town, it now resembles a failed state. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, its murder rate exceeds that of Baghdad. In Murder City, Charles Bowden-one of the few journalists who spent extended periods of time in Juarez-has written an extraordinary account of what happens when a city disintegrates. Interweaving stories of its inhabitants-a beauty queen who was raped, a repentant hitman, a journalist fleeing for his life-with a broader meditation on the town's descent into anarchy, Bowden reveals how Juarez's culture of violence will not only worsen, but inevitably spread north. Heartbreaking, disturbing, and unforgettable, Murder City was written at the height of his powers and established Bowden as one of America's leading journalists.

A startling analysis of the killing of over 500 women in Ju rez to help readers understand the presence of suffering and evil. Making expert use of narrative theology, Prof. Lu vano uses the killing of over 500 women since 1993 in Ciudad Ju rez as a lens to examine and attempt to understand the role that suffering plays in God's love and relationship with humankind. The first three chapters that form Part I describe events in northern Mexico that provide the context for the killing of young women. The five chapters in the second part examine different themes within the broad context of theodicy the nature of God, the traditional teaching of the church, and contemporary theological approaches to human suffering (e.g., Soelle, Wiesel, Moltman).

Since 1993 over 500 women have been murdered in Ciudad Juárez. Residents believe the true number of disappeared stands at 5,000. When a new disappearance is reported, Kelly Courter, a washed-up Texan boxer, and Rafael Sevilla, a Mexican detective, are sucked into an underworld of organised crime, believing they can outwit the corruption all around. The Dead Women of Juárez follows these two men obsessed with seeking the truth about the female victims of the Mexican border wars.

“A deeply reported, razor smart, up-close account of the Great Drug War . . . Absolutely courageous in its fairness and search for answers.” —William Booth, Washington Post Bureau Chief for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean The city of Juárez is ground zero for the drug war that is raging across Mexico and has claimed close to 60,000 lives since 2007. Almost a quarter of the federal forces that former President Felipe Calderón deployed in the war were sent to Juárez, and nearly twenty percent of the country’s drug-related executions have taken place in the city, a city that can be as unforgiving as the hardest places on earth. It is here that the Mexican government came to turn the tide. Whatever happens in Juárez will have lasting repercussions for both Mexico and the United States. Ricardo Ainslie went to Juárez to try to understand what was taking place behind the headlines of cartel executions and other acts of horrific brutality. In The Fight to Save Juárez, he takes us into the heart of Mexico’s bloodiest city through the lives of four people who experienced the drug war from very different perspectives—Mayor José Reyes Ferriz, a mid-level cartel player’s mistress, a human rights activist, and a photojournalist. Ainslie also interviewed top Mexican government strategists, including members of Calderón’s security cabinet, as well as individuals within US law enforcement. The dual perspective of life on the ground in the drug war and the “big picture” views of officials who are responsible for the war’s strategy, creates a powerful, intimate portrait of an embattled city, its people, and the efforts to rescue Juárez from the abyss.