Turtle Baby — Abigail Padgett

ANCIENT TRADITION. MODERN MURDER.

His hair is ebony. His skin is copper. Even at eight months, the baby is unmistakably Mayan. They call him Acito, or little turtle. And he is as hard-shelled as his animal-spirit namesake. In fact, he's just survived a near-fatal poisoning.

But lab analysis reveals that the deadly herb that nearly killed Acito had to be carefully cultivated, harvested, and stored. This was no child-hood accident. Now child abuse investigator Bo Bradley faces a terrifying, morally baffling case. Who would want to murder an Indian baby? His paid caretakers? His elusive, stagestruck mother? His unknown father? The case leads Bo into a tawdry Tijuana and a nest of drugs, deception, and danger. Here, guided by Mayan mysticism, she will uncover a dark secret--and the murderous obsession of a killer poised to strike again.