Extraordinary...Mr. Solares depicts the milieu that Treviño re-enters with scenes informed by magic realism, spooky folklore and Greek epic poetry. Without losing sight of its central narrative, the book on occasion ascends into the realm of surrealism and the fever dream ... Don’t Send Flowers is full of odd twists and strange surprises. And despite the treacherous efforts of multiple foes—including former colleagues on the La Eternidad police—the battered Treviño persists in his quest to rescue the kidnapped daughter, motivated by an unbreakable sense of karma along the way.
This is a powerful, kaleidoscopic tale set in a society where there is no center to hold; where the army, police force, and drug cartels all function as gangs with complex agendas and shifting alliances; and where human life comes unspeakably cheap. Solares offers a harrowing vision of how it all works, or doesn’t, from the bribes that grease the wheels to the blood that paints the walls, to the last gasps of the peaceful town and the natural world around it. Exposition occasionally intrudes upon the fiction, and the lack of linearity will deter some readers, but this is another urgent and vital work from a writer to watch.
Any noir fan will feel at home with this novel immediately; gritty and vicious but so real it’s scary. Mexico has a reputation for fine crime writing and this is due in no small part to Martin Solares. If you want to understand the Mexican tragedy, sure, read a newspaper, but also read Don’t Send Flowers ... Don’t Send Flowers is a labyrinthine tale of corruption, gang wars, revenge and murder in which the citizens of La Eternidad are just pawns in the game. A no-nonsense full-on thriller that leaves you breathless ... Solares doesn’t pull his punches, these are the meanest of streets. A pacy sharp witted thriller that will stay with you for a long time.
...another unpredictable descent into a region of Mexico teetering on the edge of complete lawlessness. It is reminiscent of Don Winslow's dark thrillers The Power of the Dog and The Cartel in its emphasis on the miseries wrought by the drug trade, but Solares's focus is firmly on the Mexican side of the border ... throughout the book's bold narrative choices, Solares maintains a deft touch for suspense. He draws out the threat of violence like a horror maestro until it unleashes in terrible bursts. Solares's most frightening ability of all, though, is to give even monstrous characters understandable motivations.
He is a good detective, bold and smart, and soon realizes the kidnapping is much more complex and sinister than he first thought. This is an excellent, frightening portrayal of the breadth and depth of Mexico’s cartel violence and systemic corruption.
Solares' great gift here is for setting. He captures heart-wrenchingly the grim chaos and hopelessness of a country run by drug lords, smugglers, and the sleazy kleptocrats they own. Some readers may struggle with the machismo that dominates not only the city, but the novel, and in the second half especially, which focuses on Margarito's grafts within grafts and intrigues within intrigues, the plot and structure grow a bit too baroque and disorderly, but Solares keeps the pace high, the pages turning. A sort of Mexico Confidential, with noirish atmosphere to burn and a very high body count.
