The Last Hanging of Ángel Martinez
In Taos County, New Mexico, probation officer Nina Montgomery thinks she knows all about Ángel Martinez, a “frequent flyer” in the judicial system for increasingly sadistic treatment of his ex-partner, Liza Monaghan. When Liza is found dead on her kitchen floor, everyone suspects Ángel—Nina most of all.
When Ángel’s aunt Loretta, Nina’s neighbor and friend, asks her to look into Liza’s murder, Nina reaches out to friend and sheriff’s deputy Larry Baca and becomes embroiled in the case. As Nina delves into Ángel’s and Liza’s lives, she is surprised to learn that Ángel is a santero artist on the rise. A talented but struggling ceramic artist herself, Nina finds her worlds colliding when a Hollywood celebrity wants her art just as the entanglements of Ángel’s family history begin to suggest the source of Liza’s death. Amid the cultural and natural beauty of the Northern Rio Grande Valley, Nina finds herself steeped in the drama of a family gone terribly and violently wrong.
“Riveting and powerfully told, The Last Hanging of Ángel Martinez by Kate Niles adds another strong, charismatic female detective to the landscape of contemporary mystery fiction.”—Lynn C. Miller, author of The Unmasking: A Novel
“Kate Niles delivers a true photographer’s lens of New Mexico alongside a fast-paced and hard-boiled mystery. Nina Montgomery is the tough but compassionate probation officer who guides the reader through the many trials and tribulations she faces in order to bring this puzzle to its final solution.”—Phyllis M. Skoy, author of A Coup
Kate Niles is also the author of the novels The Book of John and The Basket Maker and the poetry collection Geographies of the Heart.
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
