Equal parts Mark Twain and Gabriel García Márquez, Robert Hough's wildly imaginative new novel takes the reader to 1931 and Corazón de la Fuente, a tiny Mexican border town. Dr. Brinkley's Tower is inspired by the monstrous shenanigans of American con artist Dr. John Romulus Brinkley whose life was captured by Pope Brock in Charlatan but it is historical fiction of a different sort. Hough's aim is not to dramatize the true story of Brinkley's border blaster radio tower and the money that flowed from his fraudulent goat gland fertility treatment. Rather, he uses a few facts from Brinkley's well documented career to set the stage for the townspeople of Corazón, whose lives are thrown into disarray and changed forever under the scheming doctor's influence. Peopled with unforgettable characters and capturing a young Mexico caught between its own ambitions and the imperialist designs of its neighbor to the north, Dr. Brinkley's Tower is a stunning achievement in storytelling.