Manuel Ramos Books In Order

Publication Order of Luis Montez Books

Publication Order of Mile High Noir Books

Publication Order of Sherlock Homie Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Akashic Noir Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Recommendations

Every 2 weeks we send out an e-mail with 12 Book Recommendations by genre. Subscribe today! Click here for all past recommendations.

Manuel Ramos is an American Latino author best known for writing Chicano thrillers and mysteries, a few poems, and numerous short stories. The retired lawyer has published several novels the most popular of which is the Luis Montez series. The Luis Montez series features the lead protagonist Luis Montez, a Denver lawyer, and amateur sleuth. For his community and professional service, Ramos has been the recipient of the Spirit of Tlatelolco Award, the Chris Miranda Award by the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, and the Jacob V. Schaetzel Award by the Colorado Bar Association. His works have won him the University of California’s at Irvine Latino/Chicano Literary Award, the Colorado Author’s League Top Hand Award, and the Colorado Book Award. Apart from his work as an author, he is the director for a statewide legal program known as Advocacy for Colorado Legal Services, an attorney, and contributor to La Bloga, an online magazine about Latino literature opinion, news, and culture. As a lawyer, he has written a bestselling nonfiction work on landlord-tenant law in Colorado that has had six editions. Desperado: a Mile High Noir was the winner of the Best Mystery at the Colorado Book Awards. Manuel Ramos was born and raised in Florence Colorado but moved to Denver, Colorado to work as an attorney. He is married to the former director and founder of the KUVO radio station Florence Hernandez-Ramos.

Manuel Ramos has been writing ever since he was a child, and asserts that he turned to writing because he loved to read and thought that he could write just as well as the authors he loved. He has always had a fascination with authors and their writing, and one of his best memories is the day he learned that he was the winner of the Latino/Chicano Literary Prize for his debut novel “The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz”. He had always wanted to become a member of the writers club, but even as it took him decades to get in, the award finally did it for him. He gets most of his inspiration for his works from every conceivable source including the TV, Internet, and the newspaper. Another important inspiration is his wife Hernandez Ramos, who he asserts has a highly developed sense of adventure, fun, and imagination that has found its ways into his novels. While he writes crime fiction, he asserts that nothing is ever as good as his reality themed works. He got into crime fiction since he has always enjoyed the hard-boiled, detective fiction, and mystery fiction from the likes of Agatha Christie, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler. Given his attachment to crime fiction since his youth, it was inevitable that he would gravitate toward the genre as an adult. With his debut mystery novel “The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz” attaining much commercial success and critical acclaim, he knew there was no other genre he would rather be writing his novels in.

The most popular of Manuela Ramos’s works are the Luis Montez books set in Denver and sometimes in South Texas or San Diego. The lead character is Luis Montez, who seems to have a special love for the city of Denver, which the author asserts is mostly due to his being brought up in the state. The novels are short stories each about 1000 pages in length, though with as much wild rides and intense action as a 3000-page novel. The series of novels that cover the life of the lead character over a period of about a decade, tell the story of a man in mid-life crisis. He digs up his wasted opportunities of youth, his recriminations, and regrets until he reconciles himself with his current situation. Even though the man Luis is a lawyer, these are the farthest novels from legal thrillers. For the most part, Luis finds himself the unwitting private eye, as he has to help his clients, family, and friends who find themselves in sticky criminal situations. He is your usual lawyer who has gone through the burnouts and successes while young, but still manages to find a lot of excitement in mid-life as an amateur sleuth. He has what many would consider a hangdog charisma, which makes him one of the most likable of protagonists in a mystery thriller.

“The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz”, The award-winning debut novel by Manuela Ramos is an exciting novel with one of the most unique heroes in the detective fiction genre. Luis Montez is a middle-aged world-weary attorney with a taste for history, politics, culture, and activism for the Latino/Chicano community in Colorado. Two decades ago, Rocky Ruiz the leader of a Chicano student activist group was shot and killed while giving a speech to a group of Chicano students. However, twenty years later some members of that group find themselves in danger once again. One is beaten, another killed, while another is forced to flee for his life. A beautiful young lawyer named Teresa Fuentes fights her feelings for Montez while trying to solve the decades old mystery. If they are to solve the mystery, they have to examine the murder of their mutual friend Rocky Ruiz, which brings up difficult shared memories. Try as he may, Montez just like Fuentes, finds it increasingly difficult to banish his feelings for Teresa, even as they get closer to resolving the mystery.

“The Ballad of Gato Guerrero”, the second novel of the Luis Montez series that is a part-time detective and attorney in Denver Colorado is getting his life and career back together. The novel opens to Montez in a ditch, his car a mangled mess a few feet from him, and a strange man in a cowboy hat walking towards him with a gun. Just how did he get here? The answer is his friend Felix Guerrero who has been going behind the back of a ruthless crime lord, to have an affair with his wife. Despite all the threats, hit men and bullets he had narrowly missed he refuses to give the woman up. To add to the complications, his father in law is coming after him, as he believes he is responsible for a family tragedy. Felix on his part is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the danger he is in and it is now up to his friend Luis Montez to protect and save him from his assailants. The novel is a thrilling mystery that portrays the western Chicano culture in a richly colored fast-paced story that will enthrall any mystery buff.