A visceral, acid-soaked trip through Mexico's many underworlds: a debut novel by a crime writer of poetic genius.
A TELEGRAPH THRILLER OF THE YEAR
'A wild ride' Ian Rankin
'Tough and uncompromising: you'll be glad you read it' Lee Child
'Hilarious, gripping, poetic. I loved it' Adrian McKinty, author of The Chain
'Gripping from beginning to end' Independent
'Intoxicating and chilling' Observer
'Pacy and exciting' Daily Telegraph
'Vivid and lyrical' Guardian
'MacGabhann paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of Mexico, in all its seething, sweltering madness and beauty' Irish Independent
Nobody asked us to look.
Every day, every since, I still wish we hadn't.
Jaded reporter Andrew and his photographer boyfriend, Carlos, are sick of sifting the dregs of Mexico's drug war: from cartel massacres to corrupt politicians, they think they've seen it all.
But when they find a body even the police are too scared to look at, what started out as just another assignment becomes the sort of story all reporters dream of...
...until Carlos pushes for answers too fast, and winds up murdered, leaving Andrew grief-stricken and flailing for answers, justice, and revenge.
A
terrific,
tightly-paced thriller that
utterly transports its reader. With beautifully poetic visual description, the tale takes us from the saturated palettes and neon diffusions of Mexico City to the filthily polluted, crime-ravaged regions in the eastern part of the country - land rich with oil and horror... The sense of place, too, is
utterly electric: with considered, efficient strikes,
the story's sounds, smells, weather and colour diffuse across the narrative...
Call Him Mine has been likened to 'Breaking Bad' and 'Narcos', and the narrative, with its fast-moving combinations of crucial quests, visceral violence and dark humour, is certainly gripping. But central to the trajectory of the plot is Andrew's uncovering of a scoop; though the subject may differ, the text's progress, in this respect, bears some similarity to the 2015 film
Spotlight. Like
Spotlight, it is cleverly composed of truths to be uncovered by the protagonist, and truths withheld by him - alluded to, and then gradually revealed in later stages. And like that film, MacGabhann's novel simultaneously informs and celebrates the diligence involved in gathering and disseminating that information: facts those in the highest echelons of power would rather stay deeply buried.
