Dead Pawn — Richard E. Peck

Bob Wince, an Albuquerque building contractor, is sentenced to the New Mexico State Penitentiary for a crime he didn't commit. He is mysteriously granted an early release and declares he is fed up with accidents, or fate, running his life. Associating himself with the minor crooks and major scammers who gather at his father's restaurant, "Dimmie's Half-Off," Wince vows to re-establish his life and exact revenge on those who set him up originally. This means working the system, and, according to Richard E. Peck's Dead Pawn, that's what New Mexico is all about.