Fun. Happy ending—thank you. Learn a little Mexican history while you enjoy a crime narrative.

Would pair so well with My Sister the Serial Killer and Kindred (time travel) in a Gender and Genre course. ( )

Digital audiobook performed by Gisela Chipe

Adapted from the book jacket: 1970s, Mexico City, Maite is a secretary who live: the latest issue of Secret Romance. When her next-door neighbor, Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman – and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents. Meanwhile, someone else is also looking for Leonora. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life. As Maite and Elvis come closer to discovering the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, they can no longer escape the danger that threatens to consume their lives.

My reactions:
This is the third book by Moreno-Garcia that I’ve read and by far my favorite. In this work she does NOT include paranormal, horror, or magical realism elements. Rather she writes a wonderful noir crime novel based on historical events in Mexico, with interesting characters, multiple twists and turns in the plot and an unlikely partnership that I’d love to see again.

Maite starts as a somewhat naïve, dreamy young woman, more interested in romance stories that what is actually happening around her. But once she’s caught up in the mystery of her missing neighbor, Maite shows her intelligence, grit and determination.

Elvis is a marvel. A street punk and henchman, who love literature and music. He’s not sure he is where he wants to be in life and the events that unfold help him find a better life path.

The action is fast and furious, and totally believable. Well done, Ms Moreno-Garcia!

Gisela Chipe does a marvelous job of performing the audiobook. I particularly loved how she interpreted Maite. ( )

Mexico City in the 1970s is such a gritty and crazy backdrop for this awesome pulp noir story. Amazing characters, political upheaval, an evil paramilitary boss, and when a mysterious beautiful neighbor vanishes, loner Maite suddenly is a part of much more than her comic book romances provide. Filled with just the right amount of tension and suspense this was a wonderful read. It reminded me a lot of the movie True Romance. ( )

So atmospheric and moody. I felt like we were waiting for the main plot to drop for most of the book, and finally realized I needed to take the plot at face value. The setting provides some good history, and the characters feel like they're reflective of their time ( )

Set in the 1970s in Mexico City, Velvet Was the Night follows what happens when lonely, bored secretary Maite and low-level enforcer Elvis are caught up in the events surrounding the disappearance of Maite's politically active neighbour, the art student Leonora. I enjoyed this more than another novel of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's that I've read, Mexican Gothic, but less than Gods of Jade and Shadow. It's readable with a decent sense of place, but I never found myself particularly invested in the characters or in the resolution of the mystery surrounding Leonora—since neither Maite nor Elvis really know her, neither of them are personally invested in what's happened to her, and I think that had a knock-on effect on the novel's sense of urgency. ( )