06/13/2022
After Mario, the narrator of this bewitching paranormal thriller from Iglesias (Coyote Songs ), racks up huge debts to pay for his four-year-old daughter’s leukemia treatments, he becomes a hit man for Brian, his meth-addicted friend in Austin, Tex. Mario agrees to help Brian rob a Mexican cartel, a job that will yield them $200,000 each. The pair rendezvous with Juanca, who takes them to Mexico through a secret tunnel after a horrifying pit stop for a gruesomely obtained safety talisman. The stakes rise as supernatural beings threaten Mario and shake his confidence. Meanwhile, Juanca convinces Mario that Brian means to kill him for his share. Bizarre happenings increase as the two men prepare for a showdown with members of the cartel. Iglesias effectively portrays Mario’s fragile mental state and builds a subtle but complex mythology out of chilling details. Readers should be prepared for some intense violence, as well as passages of untranslated Spanish (“Melisa y yo morimos en vida, and that’s the worst kind of death”). Fans of creepy but emotionally deep action novels will be satisfied. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Aug.)
"My pick put me through the ringer…It's the story about one man's descent into hell, with violence so relentless I kept grabbing my bookmark to take a break. But I also kept coming back, unable to resist his crisp, propulsive writing…Mario thinks he'll get a new start teaming up with two other men to hijack a drug cartel's cash shipment before it gets to Mexico. Instead, he gets a dark odyssey made even darker, and not necessarily by the beatdowns, shootings, not even that long, terrifying tunnel under the border, but by his own growing realization that he's not as morally bankrupt as he thinks he is."—Melissa Gray, senior producer, Weekend Edition , NPR/Weekend Edition Sunday Austin Monthly, Chris Hughes
"With a noir voice reminiscent of Jim Thompson, this book charges into rage and despair, sparing no one, least of all the reader. Strap yourself in."
—Chris Offutt, author of The Killing Hills and Country Dark Crimereads The Devil Takes You Home heralds the ascent of a major crime writer."—Crimereads, The Best Novels of the Year Rob Hart , LitReactor Jeff Salamon , Texas Monthly The Source Weekly Bloody Disgusting April Snellings , The Big Thrill noir genre into some thoroughly unexpected places. Iglesias’s novel traces the last job an unlikely gun for hire agrees to do, and the increasingly bizarre and harrowing array of events that it sends him down when things don’t go according to plan.”—Vol. 1 Brooklyn Rue Morgue Tobias Carroll , Tor.com
12/01/2022
When his young daughter gets sick and his marriage disintegrates, Mario takes a job as a hit man to pay off the mountains of medical debt. He is surprised by how willing he is to commit violence. When his daughter dies, he takes one last job that makes him a target of a Mexican drug cartel. He and his buddies begin a trip that will take them through Texas and across the border into Mexico. In the end, he will either have $200,000, or he'll be dead. Iglesias's (Coyote Songs ) latest is a horrifying thriller with a supernatural twist. Jean-Marc Berne provides a chilling narration of characters with few redeeming qualities. Iglesias's lush prose is enhanced by Berne's skill in maintaining a tone of dread and his ability to fluidly switch between English and Spanish. The supernatural elements, steeped in Mexican folklore, are a perfect addition to this disturbing tale. VERDICT Iglesias's horrifying latest will have cross-appeal for fans of horror and crime. The intense violence may not appeal to all listeners, but this book is an excellent fit for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Stephen Graham Jones, and S.A. Cosby.—Elyssa Everling
★ 06/01/2022
In Iglesias's (Zero Saints ) newest, Mario is barely getting by while providing for his wife and daughter. Then a cancer diagnosis causes his world to crumble. Desperate, he seeks out his drug dealing friend Brian for violent jobs that will cover his debts and get his family back. Brian introduces Mario to Juanca, and the three lost souls go on a road trip to avenge Juanca's family and steal from the Mexican drug lords, who have stolen so much already. This is no ordinary thriller, though. As Mario narrates and comments on the unfairness of the world, readers see the miles pass, sunsets on the open road, and horrors that hide in plain sight. Scenes of magic, love, family, and faith are contradicted by brutality, violence, racism, and terror. This is a master class in discomfort, a Barrio Noir, and a raw crime story that unapologetically incorporates the ghosts, language, and traditions of the people it honors. It is also a compelling, revenge fantasy with a deadly twist, one that readers will be unable to forget. VERDICT The violence is brutal and graphic, but the story is also lyrical and staggeringly beautiful. It is an entertaining and thought-provoking book about human truths and the monsters at their core. Suggest to fans of S. A. Cosby and Stephen Graham Jones, who also write stories told by marginalized, sympathetic, and complicated characters in which every detail matters.
Jean-Marc Berne is the perfect narrator for this punch-packing tale of how, on the death of his daughter, Mario plunges to ever more horrifying depths as he seeks to clear his debts and save his marriage. Berne’s narration is spot-on, expertly using accents to differentiate the characters. Notably, his authentic narration of the Spanish sentences and paragraphs helps set the scenes. This is particularly the case with his use of a strong Spanish accent to voice Mario, reinforcing some key points in Mario’s character. While some passages in Spanish may be difficult for non-Spanish speakers to follow (because the audio is not as easy to translate as print would be), this doesn’t detract from the overall power of the harrowing story. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Jean-Marc Berne is the perfect narrator for this punch-packing tale of how, on the death of his daughter, Mario plunges to ever more horrifying depths as he seeks to clear his debts and save his marriage. Berne’s narration is spot-on, expertly using accents to differentiate the characters. Notably, his authentic narration of the Spanish sentences and paragraphs helps set the scenes. This is particularly the case with his use of a strong Spanish accent to voice Mario, reinforcing some key points in Mario’s character. While some passages in Spanish may be difficult for non-Spanish speakers to follow (because the audio is not as easy to translate as print would be), this doesn’t detract from the overall power of the harrowing story. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
2022-05-25
Faced with a growing stack of medical bills to pay for his daughter’s cancer treatments and prone to hallucinatory visions, Mario contacts Brian, an old meth-head acquaintance, who sets him up with a contract killing. Mario executes the job with unsettling ease but discovers otherworldly worms inhabiting the body of the man he just murdered. This first portent signals strange and nasty things to come for Mario, whose extralegal efforts fail to save the life of his child. When his marriage subsequently falls apart, Mario smokes meth, kills several more people, and agrees to one final assignment: Rob a Mexican cartel. Disturbing supernatural encounters en route to this suicide mission intensify the impossible danger of this unlikely feat, which culminates in monstrous battles with a cartel that is not what it seems. While Iglesias pulls off vivid characterizations (one man’s face is described as “a fistful of sliced ham”) and he threads enough Spanish through the dialogue and narration to appeal to bilingual readers, the story feels stretched and uneven. Less genre-defiant than genre-dysmorphic, the book never quite settles into a storytelling groove and instead cycles between pulse-pounding thriller, diabolical horror, and violent narcoliterature. Nevertheless, readers captivated by the characters’ motivations and the occult pyrotechnics will quickly devour it whole.
A vivid, if unbalanced, supernatural thriller at the U.S–Mexico borderlands.
