Rattlesnakes Strike Twice

Out-of-work anthropologist Minoa Diamond is bartending at a casino bar in Santa Fe when a childhood friend dies of rattlesnake bite—an improbable accident, everybody says. The grieving dysfunctional family recalls Minoa’s derailed adolescence but she tries to help anyway. Big mistake. Pretty soon rattlers turn up in too many places, like a venom trader’s ranchette, a New Age goddess cult, a casino parking lot and somebody’s bathroom in a shabby housing development. Minoa must chase a rattler killer nobody believes in from the adobe mansions of Santa Fe’s historical zone to impoverished villages and ancient Indian pueblos in northern New Mexico. Will she figure out where the venom is coming from before a rattlesnake strikes again?