The Enemy Sleeps

Who killed Eliza Vazquez? As a Mexican-American family moves from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles into the sleepy suburban town of Harper they are met with suspicion. Who is the so-called "Harper Murderer?" Is it Michael Martinez, a construction supervisor with a quick temper and an anti-immigrant bias, Robert Parsons, a known racist with a number of secrets kept from his family and community, or Kenton Weaver, a disgraced former teacher who is haunted by the ghost of one of his students? Grievances both new and old emerge as members of the Martinez family, the Parsons family, and Weaver become tangled in a disastrous chain of events before a shocking conclusion.

"Weaving complex characters, supernatural elements, murder, racism, and suburban melodrama, The Enemy Sleeps is a rousing, ghastly debut novel."

-Pedro Iniguez, Bram Stoker Award winner and author of Fever Dreams of a Parasite

"Who knew the East San Gabriel Valley needed a noir story to excavate its darkness, humanity and complexity? In his debut novel, The Enemy Sleeps, David A. Romero explores how the ones closest to us may be the people we need to fear the most."

-Naomi Hirahara, the Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Clark and Division and Evergreen

"The Enemy Sleeps is a searing blast of genuine, straight-shooting prose from a writer whose fearless pen stakes its claim in L.A.'s underground and scrawls truth across the face of this country's tired suburban pop melodramas. From the same tierra that produced hard-hitting storytellers like John Rechy, Luis J. Rodriguez, Fante, and Bukowski."

-Tim Z. Hernandez, author of They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir