Juarez Justice — Jack Trolley

Jack Trolley's San Diego police detective Tommy Donahoo ventures once again across the border to trace the trail of political corruption in modern-day Mexico in this bizarre, noirish crime thriller. Donahoo is a hard-living cop, but his own peccadilloes are nothing compared to those of the Mexican kingpins he encounters in Juarez. Trolley's inventions would seem laughable, except for the steady stream of surreal, jaw-dropping headlines that emerge from south of the border every day. Fetid jails, payoffs, baby-for-sale schemes, assassins for hire: it's all here. Mexico has fascinated many American mythmakers, from Orson Welles to Cormac McCarthy; Jack Trolley makes it seem like a disturbing photographic negative of America's soul.