Human rights investigator John Alexander returns in David Stuart's third novel as he traverses the rough landscapes of Latin America, this time with his twelve-year-old ward, Andalusia, in tow. Kidnapped, then rescued in northern Peru, Andy, as Alexander calls his young companion, has extracted what their superstitious muleskinner guides believe to be a mystical revenge when she strikes down a powerful Ecuadorian general allied to those responsible for her mother's death and steals the cross he profanely wears around his neck. Andy is no saint, but she is a complicated character, traumatized by the abuses she has suffered at the hands of her abductors. Haunted by his own childhood torments, Alexander forms a deep bond with Andy as together they try to reconcile their troubled pasts.
The three novels in anthropologist Stuart's collection, The Ecuador Effect, a PEN Southwest 2007 fiction finalist, Flight of Souls, and now Angel of Vilcabamba, offer unique glimpses into diverse cultures, the complexities of human interaction, and the psychological effects of violence.