The Sea of Cortez

What if armed, hooded men tried in broad daylight to pull you from a sidewalk in Tucson into a black van and failed? What if a second attempt designed to load you into an ambulance after being shot with a tranquilizer dart intended for large animals also failed? What if you learned that both attempts had been ordered by the most vicious drug lord in Colombia, although you had never heard of him before?

Young Mike Morales subsequently learns from an antinarcotics task force in Tucson that drug lord Hector Cortez is a distant relative who apparently wants to groom him as his successor. The task force asks Morales to allow himself to be kidnapped so that an electronic device implanted under his skin can pinpoint Cortez's location in thick jungle.

Nothing goes right, and Morales must not only fight for his own life in Colombia but must also save the beautiful nurse Maria Sanchez, who grows to love him and despise the elderly Cortez, whom she once adored. Filled with suspense, plot twists, witches, and a lasting curse connecting both Cortez and Morales to the conquistador Hernan Cortes and his rape of Mexico, The Sea of Cortez is a thriller with supernatural overtones wrapped within a love story and the tension between North and South America.