Buck is hired by a wealthy Mexican to find his son who disappeared during the break after the fall semester at Miami University. His search takes him farther than he expects–into the lower depths.

• An estate granted to a Spaniard in America, with powers to exact taxation and corvée from the Indian inhabitants; such authority; a system derived from such authority.—Oxford English Dictionary (online)

• This one was based on my experiences as a teacher in a migrant community in Florida.  The title turned out also to be a form of financial or business arrangement, and so I decided that all the titles in the series would be business or financial terms related to the story.

• This mystery has one of my favorite villains:  Joseph “Chunky” Beanland, a migrant crew chief also know as “El Gordo” by the Mexican migrants.

• Buck gets his friend Scotty, who owns Bulwark Security Operations (BSO), to help him.

• Buck is still struggling with his relationship with Cyndi Katz.   He gives a hitchhiker a lift—the hitchhiker is based on my sister Debra as a teenager.