Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“A stylish, hard-boiled novel painted in shades of gray with a whole lot of heart.” — Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay
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It’s 1970s Mexico City, and civil unrest creates a dangerous backdrop for our unsuspecting, fantasy-minded protagonist, Maite. Working days as a bored secretary and nights deeply entranced by the latest issue of Secret Romance, she gets more than her best fantasy bargained for when her neighbor, Lenora, goes missing.
Running parallel to her narrative is the perspective of Elvis, one of the local crimelord’s top enforcers that also has a taste for the romantic. As Maite and Elvis’ stories slowly merge together, you’ll come to realize that nothing is quite what it seems in this noir mystery.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, has quickly become an author to watch for her fresh take on familiar genres, rich historic Mexican settings, and romantic plots that keep you turned around. Her newest novel, Velvet Was the Night (Del Rey), only makes her talent all the more evident as it leads you on a dark, fantastic ride, taking the best of crime noir and giving it a rich cultural setting.
A SIMPLE FAVOR SPIRALS INTO SOMETHING MORE
For Maite, life is a series of dry disappointments and casual cruelty, her only solace found between the steamy pages of her favorite romance series. That is, until a simple favor from a neighbor spirals into a covert political plot, and a minor instance of kleptomania becomes the unexpected answer to everything.
When Maite’s beautiful neighbor, Lenora, asks Maite to watch her cat over the long weekend, she sees an easy chance to make extra money and fund her record collection. But as the days pass and Lenora does not return, an easy favor opens Maite’s life to a local crimelord’s scrutiny, the attention of a semi-charming political activist, and cruel government agents. As she comes closer to solving the initial mystery of where Lenora went, she’ll finally get a taste of the thrill and passion she has always fantasized about. But toss away your assumptions about this romantic noir story, because Velvet Was the Night will keep you guessing until the very end.
A SNAPSHOT OF 1970s MEXICO CITY
In the long history that is detective noir fiction, we’ve learned to love the familiar tropes of strong heroines and convoluted political mysteries brought to a head by surprising plot reveals. But Moreno-Garcia’s latest novel does more than just give a taste of the noir we all know and love; it brings to light the cruelty and fear present for those living in 1970s Mexico City, giving the reader a glimpse of how suppression of civil rights and fear of the government can lead an innocent woman into the scariest days of her life.
Through the eyes of Maite and Elvis, we get a glimpse of the decisions desperate people make and how violence is a language all its own. In the end, maybe you read Velvet Was the Night for the romantic plot or its modern take on noir fiction, but you’ll walk away with a memorable snapshot of an ordinary Mexican citizen’s life during the political unrest of the 1970s.
