THE TERRITORY

A drug war between the Medrano and La Bestia cartels holds a small border town hostage.

Artemis, Texas, police chief Josie Gray is having a rough week. Caught in a shootout between two rival drug cartels, Josie finds that her job description now includes protecting one gang from the other. While she’s trying to keep the peace, Josie becomes a target when she kills one gang member and imprisons another. There’s more trouble in another corner of town. Red Goff, the local face of Second Amendment rights, is found shot and killed in a trailer neighboring his own. Red was the head of a local group of gun enthusiasts creatively named The Gunners. Now his stash of weapons has gone missing. With so much violence already plaguing Artemis, a big cache of missing weapons is bad news for Josie and her colleagues, Sheriff Roy Martinez and Mayor Moss. Nor is Josie’s bad week limited to her investigation of Red’s murder and her tightrope walk between the two drug gangs. Her mother, an adult version of a spoiled child, has come for a visit and who knows whatever else. Danger mounts as it becomes increasingly clear that the Medrano gang is going to hold Josie personally responsible for any deaths on her watch.

Despite a clear, detailed plot, Fields’ debut lacks the spark that would bring her sorely tried heroine and her problems alive.