New York Times bestselling author, Silvia Moreno Garcia has released her delicious 2021 novel – Velvet Was the Night – that follows hot on the heels of her release, Mexican Gothic, last year. We review Velvet Was the Night here. Pick up a copy here.
New York Times bestselling author – Silvia Moreno Garcia – has released her deliciously propulsive noir novel, Velvet Was the Night. The novel flits back and forth between the perspectives of El Elvis, an eccentric criminal and member of the Hawks who wants to escape his life and Maite, a daydreaming secretary in 1970s Mexico City.Their lives become intertwined when Maite’s neighbour Leonora goes missing, leading Maite into the kind of romantic and thrilling life that she had always wanted. Maite partners up with Leonora’s ex-boyfriend to search for Leonora, now in hiding, leading her into the complicated web in which Leonora lives, filled with student radicals and dissidents. El Elvis is also out looking for her, but as he searches he comes to become obsessed with Maite, from a distance. The novel is an immensely thrilling and propulsive novel, filled with all the qualities of a black and white movie, simmering with Old Hollywood drama – hitmen, government agents, Russian spies, it’s all here. Importantly though, Moreno-Garcia shines a light on 1971 Mexico, painting it as a deeply complicated and interesting time in history, well worthy of attention and fascination.
