The scene is the Texas-Mexico border. Historically a site of conflict and violence, today it is the dividing line over which the business of drug-smuggling and its attendant mayhem takes place. Well-worn and wise in middle age, Rafe Buenrostro of the Belken County Homicide Squad is a master detective. When drug-related slayings begin occurring practically in his own backyard, Buenrostro must pierce the mystery of a crime family apparently at war with itself. As cadavers keep turning up on both sides of the Rio Grande, Buenrostro and his corps of bi-cultural sleuths visit the small cantinas, houses of ill repute, and expansive ranches of drug lords south of the river. Yet profiting equally from the illicit trade are some seemingly immaculate, well-kept suburban homes on the northern side. It is in these suburbs that revelations of seamy sex and revenge unfold. In Ask a Policeman, as well as his other novels, Rolando Hinojosa reveals a rich cross-section of life among both the high and low inhabitants of the two nations sharing the Rio Grande Valley.