Return Me to Mistwillow
by Terry Wright
Jake Stratton’s grief over the loss of his son traps a Colorado frontier town in a dusty kind of hell, until the day a long-awaited stagecoach thunders down Main Street and seals the fate of Mistwillow’s forgotten souls."My name is Cucumber Gutierrez. English is my second language, but the way I write everyone thinks that is my fourteenth."When Alberto Zapata and his baker father, Tito, are ejected from Panama over a havoc-causing cake, the whole family is thrown out with them, including Alberto’s cousin Cucumber.The family settles in Melbourne, Australia, and from humble beginnings in their new country, the Zapatas rise to unexpected prominence. A series of coincidences (or conspiracies) see Alberto raised practically overnight to become Victoria’s assistant chief commissioner of police.Zapata’s first case on the job is to solve the mystery around the disappearance of jewels belonging to the British Royal Family while on exhibition in Melbourne. Things get stranger and stranger as the case unfolds, in a madcap tale of crime, bungling, and Spanglish, reminiscent of "Get Smart" and "The Pink Panther"."Broom, Broom" is the first of the Alberto Zapata stories. Keep a lookout for new episodes "Jurassic Prick" and "China, Please Give Me More."