Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 304 pages
First Published: 2021
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Publisher’s Description
1970s, Mexico City. Maite is a secretary who lives for one thing: the latest issue of Secret Romance. While student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite escapes into stories of passion and danger.
Her next-door neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, seems to live a life of intrigue and romance that Maite envies. When Leonora disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.
Meanwhile, someone else is also looking for Leonora at the behest of his boss, a shadowy figure who commands goon squads dedicated to squashing political activists. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life: He loathes violence and loves old movies and rock ’n’ roll. But as Elvis searches for the missing woman, he comes to observe Maite from a distance—and grows more and more obsessed with this woman who shares his love of music and the unspoken loneliness of his heart.
Now as Maite and Elvis come closer to discovering the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, they can no longer escape the danger that threatens to consume their lives, with hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies all aiming to protect Leonora’s secrets—at gunpoint.
About Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Canadian author of novels, a short story collection and has edited several anthologies. Her works include Gods of Jade and Shadow, Certain Dark Things, Untamed Shore, Velvet Was the Night, and Mexican Gothic. She is the publisher of Innsmouth Free Press, co-edits the horror magazine The Dark with Sean Wallace, and is a columnist for The Washington Post and reviews books for NPR. Born in Mexico, she currently lives in Canada. Visit the author’s website →