In what reads like a plausible present (rather than the near future), the enforcer for the Southern Nevada Water Authority cuts a bloody fight over the little water that remains in the Colorado river. Part detective, part corporate spy, and occasional assassin, Angel Velasquez runs into the path of journalist Lucy Monroe, who is determined to expose the people hoarding water for the rich. I had to keep putting this down, reading it in a year like this one, in which the likelihood of violence over who gets to drink and who doesn’t grows ever more clear. But the story was too good to leave behind. I only hope it remains an entertaining diversion and not a manual for the years to come.