Two criminal oligarchs -- one Mexican, the other French -- secretly join forces to make their extensive logistics and distribution networks available to global terrorists ... with terrifying consequences. Their instrument in this endeavor are a mercurial Venezuelan known as Fósforo (like the match you strike to spark a flame) and a young Stanford-educated engineer named Graciela Montoya. Standing between them and the deaths of thousands of innocents is FBI Special Agent Porfirio "Pete" Cortez, whose once promising career is now in serious jeopardy, as vultures in blue suits circle in for the kill. As if that isn't bad enough, a crazed drug enforcer with an eye toward revenge wants him dead. While the focus of the nation's law enforcement is riveted on stopping a rash of increasingly more violent bombing attacks on Federal Reserve Banks, Cortez is shunted off to the Laredo Field Office to help track down a violent drug trafficker known only as Chucho. While working the sideshow Chucho investigation, Cortez stumbles across an unlikely link between the high profile terrorist bombings and a seemingly innocuous spot on the southern side of the border known as Rancho Buena Fortuna. RANCHO BUENA FORTUNA is the first book in Bill King's mystery/thriller series about a fifth-generation Texan whose sense of right and wrong sometimes brings him into conflict with the leadership of his chosen profession. Set amid the gritty landscape of South Texas, between Houston and the border with Mexico, RANCHO BUENA FORTUNA straddles the delicate balance between modern and traditional Texas. If you enjoy idiosyncratic characters from authors like John Sandford and Elmore Leonard, you'll love Pete Cortez.