Balas de plata. (Silver Bullets)
Reviewed by Bruce Jensen, South Texas Coll. Lib., McAllen, TX -- Críticas, 6/15/2008
Mendoza, Élmer
Spain: Tusquets, dist. by Urano Pub. 2008. 254p. ISBN 978-84-8383-057-4. pap. $26. SUSPENSE
A fast-moving detective novel from the hardworking Mexican author Mendoza, Balas de plata returns to his home turf, Culiacán, with another tale of its murderous narcos and the appealingly complex if troubled middle-aged police detective Edgar “El Zurdo” Mendieta. The killing of a sexually promiscuous man disowned by his father, an ambitious politico, seemingly triggers a string of murders with tantalizingly unclear connections—to readers and to Mendieta. Mendoza’s stripped-down narrative technique fuels the velocity of the story: his dialog challenges the reader to keep the characters straight as their words run together, with the speaker seldom directly identified. This shorthand enhances the action’s breakneck speed, though it might not work for every reader. Mendoza’s star has been on the rise in Spain ever since literary giant Arturo Pérez-Reverte credited him as an inspiration for his own Mexican narco adventure La reina del sur (The Queen of the South), and this work won the 2007 Tusquets Prize. This solid novela negra (noir novel) in the darkly ironic Mexican tradition is recommended for public libraries and bookstores.
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