“A sad woman is a blade hanging over the world, threatening to fall at any moment.”

PLOT SUMMARY:

Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems. As the three complicated men travel through the endless landscape of Texas, across the border and back, their hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation. One thing is certain: even if Mario makes it out alive, he won’t return the same.

GRADE: A

REVIEW:

First things first, this book isn’t for the faint of heart, so proceed with caution. Having stated that this novel is one wild ride best described as Breaking Bad meets The Exorcist, although not even that description is 100% accurate of the darkness you will be met with once you take this journey with Mario. Mario is a man that has lost everything – his beloved daughter Anita to sickness and later death, and his wife Melisa because of the strain of both their daughter’s death and money issues. So when Mario’s ex-coworker and friend Brian tells him that there’s a chance for them to make lots of money – by stealing bags of money from a Cartel gang for a drug lord, he doesn’t hesitate to join him, because for someone who has lost everything, putting their life at risk doesn’t seem such a risk after all. So begins this wild ride that has us witnessing firsthand the brutality of the drug trafficking world as well as the darkness of the supernatural. To say this can easily be the book of the year for the crime horror genre is an understatement, especially after winning both a Shirley Jackson award and Stoker award. One thing is for certain, Iglesias weaves a tale of guilt and darkness infused with so much humanity that despite all the horrors we witness throughout Mario’s journey, we’re still rooting for a happy ending for him. But getting that happy ending isn’t easy – and it might just take every little bit of humanity one has to try to achieve it. Will this book give you nightmares? Probably yes. But will it be worth it? Also, yes.

Read this book if you love fast-paced adventure-based crime horror with serious moments of WTF darkness. Again, not a book for the faint of heart or the easily squeamish – you’ve been warned. But if you really want to read a book that packs a punch in every single page – then this is the one for you.

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