From Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the New York Times bestselling author of MEXICAN GOTHIC, comes UNTAMED SHORE, a dark cocktail mixing a nuanced coming-of-age story with a classical noir.
‘Brutality takes on an almost divine quality’ LA Review of Books
Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel and of a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she’s soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from her humdrum life. When one of them dies, eager to protect her new friends, Viridiana lies – but soon enough, someone’s asking questions. It’s not long before Viridiana has some of her own questions about the identities of her new acquaintances.
Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman unwittingly entangled in a web of deceit.
‘Brutality takes on an almost divine quality’ LA Review of Books
Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel and of a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she’s soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from her humdrum life. When one of them dies, eager to protect her new friends, Viridiana lies – but soon enough, someone’s asking questions. It’s not long before Viridiana has some of her own questions about the identities of her new acquaintances.
Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman unwittingly entangled in a web of deceit.
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Reviews
The descriptions of Baja are uncommonly evocative of gritty reality, with poverty and desperation made plain on the page, as well as the lengths people are willing to go to in order to escape . . . (an) insightful look at criminal life from the viewpoint of a sardonic yet lonely soul seems destined for more plaudits
This thriller sets a quiet tone before building slowly and evenly, showing how a meek teenager trapped by circumstance grows into a strong woman who takes control of her future, though in the end it might change who she is
The Great Gatsby meets Night of the Iguana in this elegantly spare and darkly twisted story of undercurrents, deception and colliding cultures. Rich in atmosphere and sinister in tone . . . a haunting lesson in the dangers of desire and the illusion of glamour and how dreams can be devoured by deceit
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a wonderfully evocative writer, and she uses her skills to their best advantage in her first book of crime fiction. Atmospheric, compelling and very suspenseful, Untamed Shore is a welcome addition to the genre
Untamed Shore is both transporting and transfixing. Set in a small Baja town in the seedy 1970s, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's latest takes us into a world soaked in sunshine and secrets, where everyone is working an angle and the looming sense of menace builds with nearly each page-turn. A shrewd, exciting thriller by a writer with a fresh vision and a powerful voice
Untamed Shore is a masterpiece. I loved this book, and can't get Viridiana out of my head. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's characters are unforgettable and no one and nothing is quite what they seem. I devoured this like one of Viridiana's sharks. Truly a stunning work
Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Untamed Shore is a treat: the first thriller from a seasoned writer. This is a superb hybrid that's part classic whodunit, part sad love story, and part smart, pulpy noir packed with smiling snakes, a touch of mythology, and a strong female lead who's caught between her immediate reality and her dreams of escape, all inside the hermetic, oppressive hell of small-town gossip and old-fangled morality. This is a novel about greed, murder, and snowballing peccadilloes that moves forward with the power and grace of a shark. Don't miss it
A sense of inevitable dread builds from seemingly innocuous events in this masterful crime debut from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The period detail is fantastic, the Mexican setting vibrant and fresh, and the noir is as murky as seawater after a shark-feeding frenzy. I loved it!
An engaging sojourn illuminated by prose as bright and clear as the Baja sun. A plot driven by characters whose motives are as murky and treacherous as stormy gulf waters
Moreno-Garcia is brilliant at conjuring up the hot, dead-end world that Viridiana occupies . . . recommended