The Intrigue
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- The Intrigue
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Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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Publisher: Arcadia Books
- ISBN: 9798217347742
- Published: July 2026
- Pages: 336
- Format reviewed:
- Review date: 22/07/2026
- Language: English
One of the magical things about novels is that they can transport you to any time and any place; from the depth of history to the expanses of space. The issue I have is that they do seem to return to the same places, even if they have an entire universe to explore. Silvia Moreno-Garcia always manages to take the reader somewhere interesting, be it strange gothic houses, laboratories in the deep forests, or even the land of the dead. The Intrigue transports us to a remote Mexican town during the Second World War years.
All Ulises has ever known is the grift, his father used to take him on cons and now that the old man is dead, Ulises has set out on his own. His speciality is lonely hearts, taking advantage of lonely woman in remote towns and cities of Mexico. One such mark is Perla, the owner of a guest house in the sometime tourist town of Veracruz. There does not appear to be much money to be found here but there is a niece, Ines, a young woman who wants out of her aunt’s home and will do almost anything to escape.
I have said it before, but there is no other author that I read that is as good at painting place and characters as Moreno-Garcia and that is at the forefront of Intrigue in the locales, people and time that it is set. The book opens on Ulises and within a paragraph you get a good idea exactly who he is. Moreno-Garcia repeats this with Perla and Ines, the other two characters that we follow in the book.
Whilst Ulises and Ines become unlikely accomplices, Perla is the most intriguing. We learn most about the criminals in the present, but we discover Perla via her past. How she grew up, her family background, how Ines came to be under her care. The three characters gravitate around one another; each has their own motives. We also meet other members of the town, are they there to help, or to be manipulated?
The novel has a noir feel to it, but also a little bit of pulp. It has a slight ripeness like a lot of the best 40s noir had, and this is the decade that the book is set. Although based in Mexico, the war touched the country and the people of the countryside. They also had to deal with internal conflict and that aftermath. Moreno-Garcia mentions the novella touches in the book but manages to blend them with the noir. Something like the tone of Double Indemnity comes to mind.
Intrigue is a slow burn book, one full of twists. It has that classic feel of a situation that gets out of control and tumbles further downhill until an inevitable crash. We are not just taken on a ride, but a journey. A journey to the past, to an intriguing place full of intriguing people, but also flawed. If you are looking for a vintage style noir, this book is perfect, it has more of Moreno-Garcia’s Untamed Shore, than Mexican Gothic, but the DNA of the writer goes through all their work.
Written on 22nd July 2026 by Sam Tyler .
Topics and themes
Key Tropes
Tone & Pace
Themes
Setting
General
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