Paolo Bacigalupi, New York Times bestselling author and National Book
Award Finalist, dives once again onto our uncertain future with his
first thriller for adults since his multi-award winning debut phenomenon
The Windup Girl.
In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for
dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel
Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin, and spy. A Las Vegas water
knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that
her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so
the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors
of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix,
Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a
hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate
Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her
wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she
represents.
With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on
collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize
the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is
running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other's
hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like
sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed
if anyone hopes to drink.
