Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
A film star begs Croft to find his missing wife and daughter
Hollywood icon Roy Alonzo has just learned that in Los Angeles there is no such thing as a simple divorce. After years of bitterness and jealousy, his wife Melissa leaves him, taking most of his money, property, and five days a week with their only child. When Roy begins dating again, Melissa accuses him of sexually abusing their daughter, and disappears with her. Alonzo asks Santa Fe detective Joshua Croft to find them and prove his innocence, but there's a problem: Croft thinks Alonzo is lying.

Croft refuses to help the star -- but a surprise visitor changes his mind. Norman Montoya, underworld kingpin of Santa Fe, is Alonzo's uncle, and he convinces Croft that the fugitives are in jeopardy. The women have been swallowed by an international conspiracy, and it will take brute force -- not star power -- to bring them back.

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert. A Joshua Croft Mystery. mysteriouspress.com, ISBN: 9781453251270 (April, 2012), 469 KB, ca. 252 p., $.9.99.

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert (USA 2003)

From the Publisher:
When television star Roy Alonzo is accused by his ex-wife of sexually abusing their young daughter, Roy hires Santa Fe private investigator Joshua Croft to find mother and daughter, clear his name, and save his career. The trail leads from Beverly Hills to a commune in northern New Mexico, with mysteries proliferating as the journey goes on.

"Probes a currently trendy subject with sensitivity; vivid characters; suspenseful plotting; and some surprises reserved for the windup--in another satisfying Joshua Croft adventure."-- Kirkus Reviews

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert. A Joshua Croft Mystery. University of New Mexico Press, ISBN: 082633203X (March, 2003), 256 p., $9.95.

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert (USA 1993)

From the Publisher:
BAD VIBES...
Santa Fe private investigator Joshua Croft doesn't like his new case... or Roy Alonzo. The actor's messy divorce had made headlines when his ex-wife, Melissa, accused him of molesting their daughter. Now, mother and child have disappeared, and Melissa's sister is found tortured to death.

Following a trail from Beverly Hills to a remote New Mexico farming commune, Croft confronts the endless veils of secrecy behind which Melissa Alonzo appeared to live, move and hide. The FBI and Salvadoran assassins enter the picture and another woman is violently killed. It's dangerously clear Melissa is a wanted woman. Croft hopes he can get her while she's still alive.

"Satterthwait offers local color, detail and intriguing action along with an appealingly sensitive, slightly cynical series hero." -- Publishers Weekly
"The author probes a currently trendy subject with sensitivity, vivid characters, suspenseful plotting, and some surprises reserved for the windup -- in another satisfying Joshua Croft adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Satterthwait writes a charging-ahead mystery... " -- Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert. A Joshua Croft Mystery. Worldwide, ISBN: 0373261349 (December, 1993), 250 p., $3.99.

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
One year ago, Melissa Alonzo accused her ex-husband, television star Roy Alonzo, of sexually abusing their young daughter, Wynona. Now, after a vicious court battle over custody of the child, Wynona and Melissa have disappeared, and Roy wants Sante Fe private investigator Joshua Croft to find them both, clear his name, and save his career. Following a trail from plush Beverly Hills estates to a small farming commune in the remote New Mexico mountains, Croft discovers that Melissa's true identity is as much a mystery as her whereabouts. Is she a courageous, self-denying mother trying to protect her daughter? A dedicated political activist? Or a bored Hollywood housewife with a taste for kinky sex?

Compelling suspense, taut and entertaining mystery, A Flower in the Desert, Walter Satterthwait's third and most accomplished Joshua Croft novel, is a complex and totally absorbing tour de force.

WALTER SATTERTHWAIT, author of Wall of Glass, Miss Lizzie, At Ease With the Dead, and Wilde West, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Walter Satterthwait: A Flower in the Desert. A Joshua Croft Mystery. St. Martin's Press / A Thomas Dunne Book, ISBN: 0312077513 (August, 1992), 248 p., $17.95.