NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a sizzling noir about desire, danger, and greed, in which seduction is the ultimate con.
Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters in order to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won’t last forever, and he’s desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.
He thinks he’s found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn’t expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt’s household.
When Inés discovers Ulises’s true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They’ll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast, and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained for. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.
Venture into the streets of a small town where a patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.
My Thoughts After Reading:
If you’ve been following along on this blog, you know by now I read a little of everything. Historical noir meets novela costumbrista? Sure! Silvia Moreno-Garcia shared that novelas costumbristas are “mexican novels that offer a close look at the customs, habits, and idiosyncrasies of a particular society, especially rural ones” and noirs are “tales in which wicked people commit wicked deeds.” Those two definitions sum up The Intrigue.
Moreno-Garcia creates a wonderfully atmospheric portrait of 1940s Mexico, filled with social expectations, class tensions, gossip, and people carefully maintaining appearances. And then gives us greed characters, complicated relationships, bad decisions, and plenty of deception in a somewhat dark story. What could go wrong under those combos? Pretty much everything!
Two things worth noting:
1. Perla is high on my list of most unlikeable characters. I do wish the author dedicated more page time to Inés and Ulises.
2. The Intrigue is interestingly paced. It can be slow and meandering, even lulled, then suddenly, SURPRISE! fast-action…and back to slow. Repeat until the big conclusion.
‘Seduction’ comes up repeatedly in the marketing for this book. A better word is ‘desperation.’ Every character is desperate for something and it’s a fun, twisty ride watching their schemes unravel.
-Michelle
