‘The Case Runner' pays homage to Brownsville

 You may have never been to New York City, but you probably know the skyline by heart. You likely know that people get around by subway, that there are five boroughs, and real estate prices are through the roof.

You might even know where Greenwich Village is in relation to Brooklyn, that Williamsburg refers not to a historic colonial landmark but to a cross section of hipsters and Hassids, or that H&H is home to (disputably) the best bagels in the world.

Where does this knowledge of a place so distant and seemingly disconnected from Brownsville come from?

Books, films, and television have been cataloguing New York for years, making it one of the most popular backdrops for nationally transmitted stories about love, crime, and family.

In his premiere novel, local lawyer Carlos Cisneros pays tribute to the landmarks that Valley residents can relate to, lending the same iconography to Brownsville's landscape that New York's has claimed for a century.

His loosely autobiographical protagonist, a novice lawyer, patronizes local restaurants, sets up a law office across from the Cameron County Courthouse, and names Brownsville, Matamoros and South Padre Island's landmarks as fluidly as Carrie from "Sex and the City" waxes philosophical about Manolo Blahniks and the Paris movie theater, just south of Central Park.

Cisneros has spent five years writing the novel, a regional version of John Grisham's political thrillers.

The book works from the natural momentum of its plot line: an undocumented immigrant comes from Mexico looking for his wife and young child, who have stopped writing to him from Brownsville. The young lawyer, Alex, begins to investigate the case and ends up embroiled in a high-stakes battle with a big law firm. Cisneros sees the ensuing struggle as a battle between good and evil of biblical proportions.

True to the dictum, Cisneros has chosen to write what he knows in his first book. His agility with the intricacies of the law and his familiarity with the area strengthen his prose.

"Like Alex, I sort of didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started writing this book. I thought, I can either see this through or quit halfway," Cisneros said. "And every rejection made me more determined."

But it's the intimate setting that will likely keep local readers enthralled. Ironically, Cisneros says hundreds of publishers rejected the book on the basis that it was too regional, and therefore would not captivate a national market.

Cisneros doesn't avoid the politics of immigration; he vicariously advocates for the poor immigrant family in the novel.

"Just to show you how bad things have gotten, I can't even put you up for a night. I could be charged with harboring an illegal alien. And if I gave you a ride anywhere, I could also be charged with transporting an illegal alien," Alex says in the novel to Pilo, the undocumented immigrant, as he warns him to fastidiously evade border control.

The book isn't likely to put Cisneros on the national literary map. He doesn't exercise great skill in creating emotionally believable characters, but the obstacles they encounter are close enough to local experiences that Brownsville readers can easily fill in the blanks.

Readers from other areas may gain insight into the area though The Case Runner's lovingly detailed descriptions of place.

The Historic Brownsville Museum will host a book signing on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.