Velvet Was the Night - by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Paperback)

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a simmering historical noir about a daydreaming secretary, a lonesome enforcer, and the mystery of the missing woman they’re both desperate to find.

Mexico in the 1970s is a dangerous country, even for Maite, a secretary who spends her life seeking the romance found in cheap comic books and ignoring the activists protesting around the city. When her next-door neighbor, the beautiful art student 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.

Mexico in the 1970s is a politically fraught land, even for Elvis, a goon with a passion for rock ’n’ roll who knows more about kidney-smashing than intrigue. When Elvis is assigned to find Leonora, he begins a blood-soaked search for the woman – and his soul.

Swirling in parallel trajectories, Maite and Elvis attempt to discover the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, encountering hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies. Because Mexico in the 1970s is a noir where life is cheap, and the price of truth is high.

“A lush, magnificent trip into a world of danger and discovery. Not to be missed!” —S. A. COSBY, New York Times bestselling author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears

“This seductive neo-noir thriller … draws on the real-life efforts of the Mexican government to suppress political dissent in the 1970s… Readers won’t be able to put it down.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)