First published 2015
Angel Velasquez works as a water knife for Las Vegas, one of the assassins and spies who protect his city's water supplies in a climate-ravaged America. Mountain snows now fall as rain that evaporates before reaching the ground. Phoenix and Las Vegas fight over the shrinking Colorado River. When rumors surface about a new water source that could change everything, Angel travels to Phoenix to investigate. There he finds Lucy Monroe, a tough journalist who knows the location of this precious resource. But Angel faces competition from other hunters seeking the same prize. Lucy proves far from helpless in this deadly game. In a world where cities wage war over every drop, people will kill for the chance to control a river's flow. Angel must navigate between his mission for Las Vegas and the dangerous reality that anyone, even a despised water knife, can become expendable when water means survival.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, adventure, action, climate-change
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, survival
Setting: Las Vegas, Phoenix
Period: 21st-century
371 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: violence