BOOK REVIEW: Sunday or the Highway

by Rose Churma

Sunday or the Highway is the second in the series featuring the Filipino-American bounty hunter, Domingo.

As noted on the book’s back cover, Domingo is a “bounty hunter specializing in immigrants who do their status dirty.”

He has hunted traffickers peddling drugs, guns, and people, including murderers and other fugitives. He loves nothing more than to put bad people away.

But not all of those he has hunted are bad people.

In this latest escapade of Domingo the bounty hunter, his job is to find the undocumented parents of Julian Alondra, the sweetheart of Tessa Woodridge, a fast-food chain CEO living in California.

The first of the “Domingo, the bounty hunter” series was originally titled Multo, but has since gotten a new name: Danger No Problem. That title agrees more with the mainstream audience. (Multo was reviewed in the September 2023 publication of HFC.)

Domingo, our protagonist, is called “Sunday” by his non-Filipino clients—thus the choice of title for this book. Strangely, his last name is not mentioned at all, and if it were, I couldn’t find it in the book. Which is just as well; it is not necessary.

When Domingo first accepted the assignment, he thought it would be an easy case.

Tessa Woodridge, this young heiress to a fast food chain who was his client, believed that she and the love of her life, Julian Alondra, were meant to be together. It was their destiny.

When she was eight and on a road trip with her parents near the Mexican border, they got into an accident that killed Tessa’s parents. Julian Alondra, who was then fourteen and serving as a scout for illegals crossing into the United States, was able to save her.

Of course, Julian was promptly detained for deportation, but Tessa never forgot him and engineered a way to meet him again when she came of age and took over the family’s fast food chain.

This thriller is timely. It gives context to the daily news of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) activities and the anti-immigrant rhetoric that is dominating the conservative media’s airwaves.

Although the action in this book begins in Las Vegas, moves to California, and then to the East Coast, where Domingo is based, the crucial scenes take place in the deserts of the southern border and Mexico.

Just like the first book in the series, some of the chapters are prefaced with Domingo’s perspectives on immigration, writing down his thoughts in his journal. This is the part of the book that I learned the most about the issues surrounding the southern border.

In Chapter 13, for example, Domingo provides advice on “what to do if ICE tries to bust you.” In another, he cautions families not to cross the border “illegally with your family,” because if certain conditions exist—such as if one of the parents has a legal infraction, or lack of proof that the children are yours, or if ICE believes the child or children may be in danger—ICE will take the kids hostage.

Despite these brief essays on current immigration issues, the entertainment value of the novel remains intact. It holds true to its claim as a thriller. It is the perfect book to have on a lazy day at the beach or by the pool.

At the same time, it provides glimpses of the Filipino-American experience of being an immigrant in this country. In some of the chapters where Domingo interacts with his mother and other fellow Filipinos, the author is able to capture the essence of our culture. We see ourselves reflected in them, and the realization that perhaps we are not as invisible. Through novels like this, we are inching our way into the mainstream consciousness.

The author, Cindy Fazzi, is a Filipino American writer and former Associated Press reporter who has worked in various countries, including the Philippines, Taiwan, and the United States.

The first book in this series, which was formerly called Multo (now renamed Danger No Problem), was a finalist in the 2024 Silver Falchion Award. She also wrote a historical novel, My MacArthur, about Douglas MacArthur’s Filipina mistress, Isabel Rosario Cooper.