Media JPegs

ELLA—English Language Latina Authors, the nation’s only book club devoted entirely to works by and about U.S. Latinas—will be reading Penny Rudolph’s soon-to-be-released thriller Eye of the Mountain God as their May pick.

The group’s founder Alisa Valdez Rodriguez says, “I believe a true measure of a community’s equality in the greater culture is often best measured not by the art we create about ourselves—after all, we know we’re terrific!—but rather by work written about us by those who do not belong to our group.

While many Latina characters in mainstream fiction by non-Latina authors painted us as stereotypical in the past, I am pleased to see that the new wave of novels by non-Latinas but featuring Latina protagonists present us a whole, well-rounded, interesting and unique individual human beings who are American everywomen. This is a major step forward, and one we should all support!

Penny Rudolph says, “I am very honored that Mountain God has been selected by ELLA.”

The publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, describes Eye of the Mountain God as:

An explosive combination...

A woman who finds five emerald arrowheads wrapped in her newspaper,

an autistic child who knows the unknowable,

a man determined to become the American Che Guevara

Advance praise for this thriller comes from 2-time Edgar Award-winner Warren Murphy, who calls it, “An exciting thriller with a Southwestern flavor...(that) combines elements of Rudolfo Anaya’s and Tony Hillerman’s novels.”

The story follows Megan Montoya who has come to New Mexico with her daughter Lizzie to begin a career in photography. One morning, she opens her newspaper and five jagged stones clatter to the floor. A jeweler identifies them as emeralds, and an acheologist believes they might be the legendary emerald arrowheads used by the Pima Indians four centuries ago to lure away the Spaniards.

When Lizzie is kidnapped, Megan becomes embroiled in a separatist plot, bargaining with a cabal's crazed leader to spare her daughter's life.

Eye of the Mountain God is Penny Rudolph's fourth crime novel. Combining a cast of maverick characters and non-stop action, she offers a unique and captivating story about one mother's love and the causes that some people are willing to die, and kill, for.

EYE OF THE MOUNTAIN GOD

by Penny Rudolph

St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books

$25.99 Hardcover

ISBNs 0-312-54546; 9-780312-545468