Mystery Set in Mexico by a Choctaw Author
The Last Trumpet: Murder in a Mexican Bull Ring
Notes: A novel featuring Downing's recurring character, the US Customs Service inspector Hugh Rennert. This one is set in Mexico and Rennert sets out to solve the cunning murder of a bullfighter seemingly gored during a bullfight. This was Downing's sixth mystery published in four years.
Downing was a member of the Choctaw Nation, born in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1902. He was the first commercially successful Native American and Oklahoman mystery writer. He was particularly interested in Mexico and the Spanish language (he also spoke Choctaw, French, and Italian) and wrote a book on the history of Mexico from the indigenous perspective, The Mexican Earth (1940; republished 1996).
The dust jacket design is signed "B.A." (probably Boris Artzybasheff) features a stylized bull's head with a horn dripping with blood.
Edition + Condition: First edition (stated). A very good copy in the original black cloth and a very good dust jacket with some chipping to the edges, particularly at the top of the spine. The chipping does not affect any text or design elements. There is also some loss along the flap folds.
Publication: New York: Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1937.
Item No: #362143
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