19) Forecast: As the James Bond title goes, ''Never Say Never Again,'' but Nava's announcement that this novel closes this popular series should spur sales not only of this book but of the previous six Henry Rios titles. Nava’s novels easily crossed over to a wide readership because of his skill at creating characters and plots.

His first The Little Death was published in 1986 and Rag and Bone, his last, came out in 2000. Rios's humanity and decency shine through this satisfying novel and leave the reader hoping that the author's pronouncement of finis might be wrong. Nava published seven award-winning novels about Henry Rios, a gay Latino criminal defense lawyer.

But the truth is more complex, and Rios must learn a great deal about himself and his new relatives to find it. This essay examines how aspects of a criminal case parallel matters concerning homosexuality in the final Henry Rios mystery, Rag and Bone (2001).2 Taking my. Recuperating from a heart attack (a very dramatic. When Vicky shoots her drug-using husband, it appears a simple case of self-defense. The conclusion to the series featuring gay Mexican-American criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Vicky's a battered woman with a record, while Angel, who reminds Rios of himself as a child, already bears signs of a hard childhood. And Elena's daughter, Vicky Trujillo, and her boy, Angel, come with serious baggage. The smoothly integrated plot strands conspire to test and push Rios into reassessing everything, from the new love and the commitment it both promises and demands, to the news that his estranged sister, Elena, had had a daughter, now grown and with a son of her own. The challenges L.A.-based Rios confronts are as complex and involved as the man himself: a heart attack, a possible appointment to a judgeship, the discovery of an unknown niece and grandnephew, a new love and the most personally daunting defense case of his career. His fans may also be perplexed by the lack of explanation for halting the series. Pleasure because Nava is in top form sadness because of his announcement that this is the last Rios novel. This seventh Henry Rios mystery should bring both pleasure and sadness to admirers of the gay Mexican-American defense lawyer.

Rag and Bone by Michael Nava