Created by Robert Richter
COTTON WATERS is a gringo private eye on the west coast of Mexico, known to his drinking buddies in Puerto Vallarta as “Algo.”
A former activist and draft dodger (the first book, Something in Vallarta, is set in 1972), with plenty of old and unresolved legal and political problems back in the States, he’s essentially hiding out, an illegal immigrant who spends his days reading Thoreau and Emerson, and drinking beer. Ostensibly, he works as a guide, catering to wealthy American tourists. But that’s just for cerveza money — his main gig is as an unlicensed private eye, helping people get lost or — if the price is right — helping them find someone who would prefer to be lost.
According to his bio, “Robert Richter grew up in Colorado and was a member of the first MA creative writing program at Colorado State University in 1973. In 1975, he returned to the remnants of the family farm and was a fourth generation dryland wheat farmer for twenty years. After giving up his own farming, Richter did itinerant farm labor, substitute teaching, court interpreting, and conducted escorted excursions in Latin America while continuing to write cultural essays, history, and fiction. He continues to live in southwestern Nebraska, but he has a relationship with west coast Mexico that goes back forty years. Experience in both those cultural geographies continues to infuse his work.”
UNDER OATH
- “Well-worn storytelling with a nostalgic counterculture feel, all as comfortable as your old pair of Weejuns.”
— Kirkus Reviews on Something in Vallarta
NOVELS
- Something in Vallarta (1991) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Something Like a Dream (2010) | Buy this book
- Something for Nothing (2015) | Buy this book
SHORT STORIES
- “Reina’s Three Husbands” (2015, Reina’s 3 Husbands) | Buy this book
