Love and Death in the Valley
by Kevin Annett
Category: Fiction

When Matty Lopez McGuire's son, Miguel, is involved in a murder case, she knows she must help him. But he is secretive about his recent past (mid-1990s) with revolutionaries in Chiapas, Mexico. His attitude also alienates Matty from Ramon, the homicide detective she is dating. In Matty's work as a housekeeper in a cul-de-sac in Costa Dorada, she interacts with her five clients: The Chinese-American family is remodeling its home; Miguel, working in construction there when not in college, has argued with a fellow worker, African-American Jarod. When Jarod is killed, Miguel is the main suspect. In the novelist's household, Matty learns that teenage Laneesha has suspicious ties to Jarod. She also discovers that the boys in the neighborhood play secret, dangerous games. The Latina lawyer client sets a positive example for Matty; a socialite client, a negative one. Professor Dorn, father of one of the boys, may be a neo-Nazi. While Matty works for these people, she studies at night school she doesn't want to be a housekeeper forever and explores her Latina roots. Though resourceful at solving other people's problems, she sometimes has trouble coping with her own. Occasionally her temper and defensiveness get in her way. Casting herself in the role of detective, Matty has developed the habit of snooping (as Ramon calls it) in her clients' homes when she deems it necessary. In this way she discovers incriminating evidence that leads to the clearing of her son's name. And though she is sure that computers hate her, as do the cats she is temporarily boarding, both these foes, ironically, help her solve the mystery and find the real culprit. Romance ebbs and flows and finally blooms with Ramon, and Matty eventually discovers that her cul-de-sac is not a blind alley, but an opportunity.