National Network for Equitable Library Service

Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel. In 2018, Belinda Alvarez returns to Texas for the wedding of her best friend Veronica. The farm hosting the celebration is the site of the urban legend La Reina de Las Chicharras — the Queen of the Cicadas. In 1950s south Texas, a farmworker named Milagros from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not by the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacíhuatl. The goddess hears Milagros’s dying cries and creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and worship. As Belinda and the new owner of the farmhouse, Hector, uncover the legend, they realize it is part of their fate as well. Flame Tree Press is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018, the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established — the award winners and exciting, original voices.