Midnight Cactus

"To the south lies Mexico. To the North you can see the flat plains and snow tipped peaks of the Patagonia Mountains... And in between is a strange and wild landscape representing a freedom so great that for a long moment, I find it hard to breathe."

Seeking a respite from her claustrophobic marriage and life in London, Alice Kuhlman moves to the Arizona desert with her two small children, Jack and Emmy, to renovate a small abandoned mining town near the border with Mexico. In the dusty, alien atmosphere, peopled by a mix of desperate immigrants and locals determined to defend their land, Alice is uncertain whom to trust. It seems that everyone – from Benjamin, the Mexican caretaker, and the taciturn foreman, Duval, to her boorish neighbour Jim Morgan and crazy Norma – has something to hide.

And as she discovers more about this harsh frontier and a brutal crime committed twenty years earlier, Alice becomes involved in a dangerous quest for justice. Finally, she will be forced to decide how far she is willing to go to escape, and what exactly she is willing to sacrifice...