Rowena R Conrad

Shadows of La Paz Rowena R Conrad

It is 4:30 on a Saturday morning at Barrio Santa Inez, in the town of La Paz, Zambales. Gabriel Alvarez is roused from sleep by a farmer who has come to report that four thieves are making off with the coffin of a recently buried, rich Chinese businessman. Compelled to pursue the perpetrators but with no police in sight, Alvarez enlists the help of a gun-toting cousin.

While the two men scour the cemetery for clues, they stumble upon a body crammed in a sack. After it is identified, Philippine Constabulary investigators descend on the province, focusing on Gabriel's relations and his past dalliance with a mysterious woman. Desperate and on the run, he gets help from a powerful politician with a great debt of gratitude to pay...but one who has much to lose.

As the story unfolds and secrets come to light, Barrio Captain Alvarez realizes that the past has come to revisit him, and that he has become a pawn in one man's grand ambition. His only hope of salvation lies in a faith healer whose unusual methods border the bizarre.

From the beaches of Zambales to the Hundred Islands of Lingayen; from the seedy strips of Subic to the slopes of a dormant volcano, Alvarez races for his life, his pursuers never far behind.

Meanwhile, in their midst lives a woman trapped in a nightmare whose dark tortured mind has a story to tell.

Love, heroism and diseased souls, La Paz has it all.