Nick Finn is an agent with Customs and Border Patrol. Mona Jimenez is a human-rights attorney attached to a firm that provides legal services for people caught crossing the border illegally.

Of course they’re married.

They also wind up being the trope-ish investigative team that looks into the murky death of Carmen,who was caught and placed in a detention center after crossing the border to escape her drug cartel-associated boyfriend. There’s also the spectre of dirty CBP agents, as Finn notices interdictions in one particular office is solely resulting in rounding up people illegally crossing the border, and zero drug traffickers or their mules.

The story takes a bit to get moving, and in my opinion, the actual opening of the book is a little ways in from where it starts here. However, it is a necessity to give us some information on our main characters.

Curiously enough, these two could just as easily been colleagues instead of husband and wife, as there’s no real zing in their relationship. Whatever the case, they do at least work well enough together to investigate what’s happening here and bring a little justice into play.

The setting and subject matter are certainly topical and important, the story is decent, and the writing is fine. Some of the Spanish in the text was not translated in the text – I’m not sure if this was because I was reading an ARC or if this was intentional, but it’s just a note for folks who may not be able to read the language.

A solid three star out of five read.

Thanks to Forge/Macmillan-Tor and NetGalley for the review copy.