The Intrigue

Released on July 14th of this year, The Intrigue is the latest novel by speculative fiction author Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. The same author who brought us the fantastic Mexican Gothic, Silver Nitrate, and The Bewitching.

The Intrigue was listed as a noir mystery thriller. I made sure to check the genre before buying this book, because Moreno-Garcia writes in many different genres, including romance. In fact, all of her books contain a little romance. Some are more heavy-handed, like Velvet Was the Night or Gods of Jade and Shadow. Some are straight-up romance, like The Seventh Veil of Salome. Can you tell I’m a bit of a fan? Even so, I DNF’d that last one because romance is not my thing.

I’m not a prude. I just find that sort of book boring and prefer stabbings to spicy scenes.

In that way, The Intrigue was a bit of a disappointment. There are precious few murders in this book, and very little blood. It’s not a very eerie book. Not very scary at all.

I mean, except for the possibility of dying alone in a decaying house. That seems pretty scary to me.

All that being said, The Intrigue was still a pretty good mystery novel. So if you’re in the mood for a softer read, let’s discuss it.

The story starts with Ulises. He’s a con artist in Mexico City, in the 1940’s. He specializes in writing to lonely women to trick them into giving him money.

What a great guy!

A new score brings him to a small town to woo a woman named Perla. This is when we meet our second main character, Ines. She’s Perla’s niece, a bastard daughter raised by the older woman after her mother died.

Ines has a hundred reasons to hate her aunt. And soon we do too.

Perla is unkind, selfish, and penny-pinching. And it’s not long before you’re kind of rooting for Ulises and Ines to take the money and get the hell out of there.

Even though the book isn’t overly scary, it’s very compelling. Ines is a fantastic heroine. She’s been victimized over and over by her aunt. She cares about people. And so when she decides to give some of that rage back to her aunt, you can’t help but cheer for her.

There is also just truckloads of tension. Not just sexual tension between the two main characters. But the tension of all the people around her who might catch them. The amount of things that could go terribly wrong at any second. The tension of waiting for Ines to snap and just smack Perla in her stupid face. All of this tension does eventually lead to a very satisfying release. In more ways than one.

And, of course, this is above all a Sylvia Moreno-Garcia book. So we’re treated to lush, fantastic descriptions of Mexico. Both the city and the countryside come alive in this book. It’s more than just reading. You feel like you’re walking down the streets of Mexico City. And that’s what really keeps me coming back, if we’re being honest. I never finish one of her books without wanting to experience Mexico. Even though the closest I’ll probably ever get is these books.

All in all, this wasn’t the sort of book I usually talk about here. I probably won’t talk about another book like it. But if you’re in the mood for something a little less bloody and a little more noir with a lot of spice, you’ll enjoy The Intrigue.

Want a more gruesome book review? Check out my thoughts on The Reformatory.