TITLE: Velvet Was the Night
AUTHOR: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
304 pages, Del Ray, ISBN 9780593356821 (hardcover, e-book, audiobook)
DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): 1970s, Mexico City. Maite is a secretary who lives for one thing: the latest issue of Secret Romance. While student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite escapes into stories of passion and danger.
Her next-door neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, seems to live a life of intrigue and romance that Maite envies. When 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 at the behest of his boss, a shadowy figure who commands goon squads dedicated to squashing political activists. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life: He loathes violence and loves old movies and rock ’n’ roll. But as Elvis searches for the missing woman, he comes to observe Maite from a distance—and grows more and more obsessed with this woman who shares his love of music and the unspoken loneliness of his heart.
Now 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, with hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies all aiming to protect Leonora’s secrets—at gunpoint.
MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5
MY THOUGHTS: It’s been a while since I’ve read something that was straight noir (as opposed to crime thrillers or urban fantasy with noir-ish flavor), and I’m glad that I chose this book as my return to the genre. I’m well familiar with Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s fantasy and horror work and had no doubt I was in good hands but Velvet Was the Night surpassed all my expectations. Damaged people trying their best to survive? Check. Character turns and plot twists? Check. A setting that is as much a character as the humans who inhabit it? Check. A satisfying but not necessarily “happy” ending? Check.
Most of the noir I’ve read has been told from a single character point of view, usually in first-person narration. Moreno-Garcia spends equal amounts of time in the heads of both of her protagonists, El Elvis and Maite, widening the lens of the story and allowing the reader to see some of the events from both perspectives. The characters are not always with or even near each other (despite Elvis’ mandate to surveil Maite to find out what she knows about the missing Leonora), so we don’t get every single event through the eyes of both characters (thankfully, because I think that would get tedious). But when the characters meet or even just see each other from afar, we get to see what each of them thinks about the situation. Elvis is more aware of Maite than she is of him, and Moreno-Garcia puts to effective use the adage about every witness to an event remembering it differently.
The book is populated with a half-dozen or so interesting supporting characters: the mysterious Leonora; her two ex-boyfriends (one a rich antique dealer, the other a struggling student); Elvis’ fellow gang-members and mysterious boss; a revolutionary priest and a Russian spy. Mexico City is a character as well, almost purposefully throwing hot sticky weather and traffic and protests in the characters’ way. They all add color and drama and increasing stakes. But it is Maite and Elvis who draw the reader in, almost mirrors of each other. Both have been hurt by the betrayal of former lovers, both come from impoverished backgrounds, both have mothers (one present, one long absent) who don’t support/believe in them. Both love American music (flying in the face of the political movement of the time) but can’t afford to buy much of it, and both love language (they own the same edition of the same dictionary, even). They both spend a good portion of their day fantasizing about what could be (alternating between longing for their lost loves and obsessing over someone they can’t have) fueled by romance comics (for Maite) and the lyrics of American pop songs (for Elvis). They each equally have romantic standards that are likely unrealistic, which cause them to constantly be disappointed. And that constant disappointment further fuels their social awkwardness and need to fantasize, which further pushes them into the increasingly dangerous set of crosses and double-crosses that keep the novel moving. The best noir builds action out of character flaws, and this is the very best noir.
I have to admit I know almost nothing of Mexico’s history, and especially little about the 1970s. Moreno-Garcia gave me everything I needed to know to understand the political underpinnings of the story – and also enough to make me want to learn more about the country’s history of upheavals and outside influence. I love it when a work of fiction makes me excited to read non-fiction.
If you’re a fan of noir, of damaged people struggling to make the best of bad situations, of gunplay and double-crosses – move Velvet Was the Night to the top of your purchase/read list. You will not be disappointed.
NOTE: I read an Advance Reading Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley. But this review has been so delayed that the book is now available in print, audio, and e-book.