Death of an Evangelista

Allana Martin brings us another adventure of the very likable Texana Jones, owner of a trading post in Presidio County, across the Rio Grande from Mexico. An ugly and frightening episode - a dead man occupying the taxi Texana enters on her way home from a dentist appointment in Mexico - is an indication of a local attitude that has smoldered for more than a century and lately seems to be about to flame up once more. La frontera is a place where Catholic heritage is jealously guarded and where Protestant evangelism is met with hostility and even violence - only recently two Mormon missionaries have disappeared in a remote village. Now, in Presidio, a woman named Electra has arrived and she, too, is preaching conversion. When Texana and Father Jack, the new Catholic priest, visit La Noria, the lush ranch belonging to the long-established Spanish American Haro family, they find that a conflict is roiling in that established house. Alicia, the padrone's granddaughter, has become Electra's devoted follower. In defense of his strong opposition, the elder Haro gives the visitors the story of the conflicts, both religious and political, in his own family that hardened his antagonism toward such preachers and their preaching. Texana is shaken and Father Jack apprehensive as they leave to deliver Electra's grocery order. Their fears are more than justified. There is hatred and murder, and Texana suddenly finds herself reviled and shunned by the people in the town who she thought were her friends - and customers. Epithets are shouted at her, insults painted on the trading post wall. Even more frightening, there are threats of worse to come before Texana, backed by her husband, Clay, her father, and their loyal friend Pete Rosales, can win back friendship and respect without having to compromise her beliefs.


Genre: Mystery