The Alvarez Journal

Rex Burns's first novel introduces Gabe Wager, a tough, hard-drinking Denver police detective of mixed Chicano and Anglo heritage. Heroin has begun appearing on the streets of the Mile High City, and the department has formed a new narcotics unit to fight it. Wager and his rookie partner work the case through Denver's neighborhoods and its criminal underworld in a police procedural noted for its realistic detail. Burns, a professor of American literature at the University of Colorado Denver, won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and the book launched his long-running Gabe Wager series.