Skorpio

Vaughan Beadles, Professor of Anthropology at swanky Creighton University, is on top of the world. Married to a beautiful woman, Beadles has just taken possession of the largest uncatalogued Amerindian collection in the US.  For years Beadles has investigated the mysteriously vanished Azuma, but when one of his students dies from a scorpion sting, his world comes crashing down.  His wife abandons him, and he finds himself charged with grand larceny and manslaughter.
His only hope for redemption is to prove that the Azuma were real and find the epicenter of their civilization-a journey that takes him to Arizona and a fateful encounter with a monster literally from his own nightmares."Mike Baron writes like the bastard offspring of James Crumley and Rex Miller, in prose so hardboiled you'll break a tooth."-Jeff Marriote