Speckled Vanities — Marc Estrin

Indian Springs, Nevada (pop 991), at the edge of the Mojave, is "downtown" to three institutions: - Creech Air Force Base, home to drone operators in their air-conditioned trailers, - High Desert State Prison, Nevada's largest, newest, and most modern, and - the Sekhmet Temple of Goddess Spirituality, a women's community in the desert. All three are concerned with violence against women. This remarkable combination is the setting for some very confused relations among four protagonists, in a plot modeled on Cervantes and Goethe. They are all musicians, and music maps their gnarly way throughout.