Changes

Sam Hawken's ''Tequila Sunset'' is a gang land crime novel set across the border between the US and Mexico. The story centres on three people: Flip Morales is a young Latino American who gets somewhat unwillingly caught up in the Barrio Azteca gang after a stint in prison; Cristina Salas is an El Paso police officer - a single mother with an autistic child; and Matías Segura is a Mexican federal agent based in Ciudad Juárez with marriage issues. When the FBI launch a sting to catch the Azteca gang, all three will become involved with each other in a struggle against violence.

However, while ''Dead Women'' tackled a very specific issue, that of the extreme number of female homicides in Juárez, ''Tequila Sunset'' is more general in the issues of gangland culture and arms for drugs trade. And while I'm still haunted by the memory of the gruelling, angry, dark intensity of reading ''Dead Women'', his second novel contains more light as well as shade and is more balanced as a result. That's not to suggest Hawken has gone soft - he hasn't. There's still plenty of graphic violence when it is needed, but he lets in more space for personal issues here.