The devil's harvest A ruthless killer, a terrorized community, and the search for justice in California's Central Valley

When José Manuel Martinez was arrested in 2013, the reign of a prolific hit man/serial killer came to an end. Martinez operated unimpeded for more than 30 years, leaving a trail of bodies up and down California's fertile Central Valley, and across the U.S. BuzzFeed News senior investigative editor Garrison darkly posits that authorities failed to properly investigate Martinez's crimes because most of his victims were Mexican, some with dubious citizenship, and shares other unsolved drug-smuggling murders from the era that lend credence to her theory. Martinez also deftly wove his way in and out of jams, avoiding further scrutiny with his easygoing manner, and even offering to aid police in certain investigations. He also remained devoted to his family, even while his murderous appetites would work against a normal family life. Garrison parallels Martinez's loving side with his work as a cold and calculating hit man. Ultimately, a callous insult thrown about his daughter led to the murder that would bring his decades-long crime spree to an end. This is a powerfully addictive read from start to finish, and a first-class true-crime narrative.

Garrison, former Los Angeles Times reporter and Buzzfeed News West Coast investigations editor, delivers in her debut an expertly researched account of the life and alleged crimes of Jose Manuel Martinez, one of America's most prolific hit men. In June 2013, authorities apprehended the 58-year-old Martinez in connection with a Florida murder as he attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico. Martinez freely confessed to 36 murders for hire across 12 states over his 30-year career as a freelance Mexican cartel enforcer. At his trial in Florida in 2019, Martinez's defense was able to persuade a jury he should not face the death penalty, as the prosecution called for. Garrison provides Martinez's account of his criminal acts and the lackluster police efforts to solve them, and explores the history and hardship of the predominantly migrant farming communities among whom he committed most of his violent crimes. In a time of great frustration with law enforcement's role in the racial divide in America, Garrison's work shows another aspect of the social disparity in policing, namely that crimes against minorities are poorly investigated. This is essential reading for true crime buffs. Agent: Katherine Flynn, Kneerim & Williams. (Aug.)

Most contract killers view their acts as a job. BuzzFeed News West Coast investigations editor Garrison portrays one who took pleasure from murder. Jose Manuel Martinez killed nearly 40 people in a 30-year period, sometimes for pay, sometimes simply because, in one case, someone parked in his driveway. He was finally convicted in three different states, but it took the police more than three decades to catch up to him even though they suspected him. There were a couple of reasons for the lag; Martinez claimed it was because he was "so damn good," but Garrison has a different take: Of the Golden State Killer, who killed mostly white women, some 2,800 stories were written, whereas in the case of Martinez, "there were fewer than fifty." The author ventures that Martinez, whose victims were mostly Mexican Americans and immigrants presumed to live in crime-ridden places with no advocates in law enforcement, "had found an ideal place to ply his trade" in California's impoverished Central Valley. Garrison constructs a horrifying portrait of a man who began to kill when a relative was raped and murdered, found he was good at it, and made it a profession alongside drug-dealing and other crimes. The police caught up with him time and time again but could never make the charges stick beyond short sentences--as when he killed "a rat" and failed a lie-detector test on the matter but soon walked away because polygraphs aren't admissible evidence in California courts. Garrison's story involves a lot of personal back and forth with the now-imprisoned Martinez, who called her during his Florida trial to ask, "What is a sociopath?" "When I told him it referred to someone who had no conscience and lived outside the rules of society," she writes, "he responded, 'Huh,' as if he wasn't quite sure what to make of that." An urgent, highly readable work of crime swiftly committed and justice long delayed. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.