It’s been 12 years since I released THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY. On the eve of Mexico’s presidential elections, an attorney discovers collusion between the country’s powerful Minister of Public Security and a notorious drug cartel leader, making him a target hunted by both the cartel and his own government. Literary Fiction Review called it “Enthralling political drama.” it was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award.
Yet, agents said that no publisher wanted a book with all Mexican characters. I should make the heroine Luz de Maria a college student from the United States.
Related post: Worst writing advice ever.
Well, I’m glad to see that this attitude has gone by the wayside. ALL OUR WARS by US writer Stephanie Vasquez is a Mexican family drama pitted against pending presidential elections, very similar to HIDDEN LIGHT but with narco protagonists as in Jeanine Kitchel’s 2-volume WHEELS Up series about narco Layla Navarro.
If you like literary fiction with a deep dose of Mexican authenticity, ALL OUR WARS is a must-read.
Sofia De Luna left Mexico—and the mid-tier drug cartel run by her father—after her mother was murdered. More than a decade later, she is summoned home to Cuernavaca because her drug kingpin father is going to “retire.” As the family gathers, the unspoken question is who will inherit the mantle of jefe. Odds are that the old man will anoint one of Sofia’s two brother or two male cousins.
Instead, he points to her.
Sofia is reluctantly plunged into the role of cartel dealmaker. A presidential election is coming up, the cartels are fighting for territory and candidates want their support. One in particular is willing to strike a deal, knowing Sofia wans out of the business. The deal is being enabled by a partner in the drug business who was Sofia’s first true love as well as the man rumored to be responsible for her mother’s death.
At the same time, her cousins are tired of moving cocaine and are moving into the more lucrative human trafficking business, plus causing trouble by tweaking the nose of Mexico City law enforcement.
This is a heavily dialogue-driven story, with lots of enigmatic conversations. Everyone wants Sofia to make deals but the actual terms are opaque and it’s hard to know if that was a deliberate device by the author or not. Sofia is bound by family ties, a theme repeated over and over, basically keeping her from really doing anything until she finds out about the human smuggling and suddenly has something to trade.
The book would have moved more swiftly without the asides about her dead mother, although the flashbacks from that woman’s point of view are very well done. I assumed that the flashbacks would point to Sofia’s father as the mother’s killer, which would have freed Sophia to act more independently, but that was not the case.
Who is revealed to be the killer? Will Sophia break free of her family’s dirty business? Those are the questions that drive the book and come together in a riveting climax.
I devoured the book in two days. You will, too.
