Asesinato en la frontera

This Spanish-language detective story, "Asesinato en la frontera" (Murder at the Border) by Bruno Shalter, originally published in English as "Frontier of Fear" (1953), follows Steve Miller, a hard-boiled American drifter who arrives in the border town of San Crispín. Miller, characterized by cold emotional detachment and muscular competence, is recruited at the Salón Azteca nightclub by Rita Drake, an attractive woman working with George Blomberg, a cinema owner. Blomberg offers Miller five hundred dollars weekly as nominal security at his theater, the Monumental, with the true purpose being to establish Miller as a regular border crosser for smuggling operations. Miller accepts and begins work. Five days later, Rita appears in his car outside the cinema, revealing Blomberg's satisfaction with Miller's performance and attempting to deepen their personal connection beyond their initial professional arrangement.