Poisoned by God's Flesh

Cochiti Police Officer Peter Romero finds the teen daughter of his former love, Adelina, poisoned by Psilocybe Mexicana, or “God’s Flesh,” but evidence leads off the reservation. Against the demands of his wife, Costancia, and warnings by the FBI, Romero pursues the case. A series of outwardly unrelated events: a drug sting gone bad, the brutal murders of innocents and police, and the kidnapping of Costancia and Adelina point Romero to the most intricate yet violent confrontations of his career.

Cochiti Police Officer Peter Romero finds the teen daughter of his former love, Adelina, poisoned by Psilocybe Mexicana, or “God’s Flesh,” but evidence leads off the reservation. Against the demands of his wife, Costancia, and warnings by the FBI, Romero pursues the case. A series of outwardly unrelated events: a drug sting gone bad, the brutal murders of innocents and police, and the kidnapping of Costancia and Adelina point Romero to the most intricate yet violent confrontations of his career.

David E. Knop is a retired Marine officer with twenty years of service. He saw two tours in Vietnam as an artillery forward observer and naval gunfire support officer. As a staff officer, he wrote and edited numerous military operations plans. Dave also authored feature articles for the Field Artillery Journal and Marine Corps Gazette. In civilian life, Dave became a technical writer and produced many electronic and automotive manuals for industry leaders such as SAIC and Computer Sciences Corporation. Dave’s work for the Eighth Air Force received an award of excellence in a Northern California Society of Technical Communications competition. Dave’s first novel, The Smoked Mirror, a supernatural thriller featuring former Marine Cochiti Pueblo police officer Peter Romero, placed honorable mention in both the Maryland Writers' Association and Reading Writers contests. The manuscript also qualified top ten in the Wahmpreneur Books Fiction contest. Dave’s second mystery, Mining Sacred Ground, brings the role of spirit warrior to the subgenre of Native American detectives. This novel was a semi-finalist in a recent Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Contest and placed top ten in the Killer Nashville contest. Dave’s third novel, Poisoned by God’s Flesh was awarded a bronze medal by the Military Writers Society. An alumnus of Book Passage Mystery Writer’s workshops, Taos Institute of the Arts, Maui Writer’s Retreats. Dave is a lifelong student of Native American mythology.