The Black Minutes

Starred review from March 22, 2010
Set in the fictional oil port of Paracuán, Mexican author Solares's debut deftly treads a risky tightrope between police procedural and surreal fantasy. Someone kills young journalist Bernardo Blanco while he's investigating a 20-year-old case involving the serial torture-murders of young girls, violations so horrifying that they sicken even hardened cops. Solares unflinchingly follows both detective Ramón Cabrera, who's assigned to Blanco's murder, and detective Vicente Rangel González, who investigated the original crimes, two idealists barely keeping themselves afloat in a sea of corruption, as they uncover layer after layer of depravity. With continually shifting perspectives and nightmarish intrusions—real or imagined?—of actual people like “B. Traven” (the enigmatic author of Treasure of the Sierra Madre
), this haunting novel forces readers to confront that bedeviling paradox of human nature, the eternal mystery of wickedness.

June 15, 2010

Bernardo Blanco was a young reporter for the San Antonio Herald with a beautiful blond girlfriend when he decided to spend a year in the fictional port city of Paracuan, Mexico. After he is found murdered there, police officer Ramon Cabrera learns that Blanco was researching a book about a serial killer of little girls during the 1970s. The scapegoat killer, who actually had a legitimate alibi on the days the girls were murdered, is currently behind bars, but the real criminal is free, protected by powerful interests. The book examines both Cabrera's investigation and the earlier investigation by Vicente Rangel and reveals chillingly similar patterns of corruption. Those working on both cases are followed, harassed, and tortured. Even Alfonso Quiroz Cuaron, called the "Sherlock Holmes of Mexico," hastily abandons the case and retreats to Mexico City. Among the many other captivating characters are an elderly German priest cowed into perjury, various doppelgangers, and even B. Traven and Sir Alfred Hitchcock. VERDICT This remarkable first novel is highly recommended for those who relish the mission of dedicated detectives operating in the most hostile of environments. [See Prepub Exploded, BookSmack! 12/17/10.]--Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2010
At first, the sheer exuberant inventiveness of this remarkable Mexican debut may mystify some American crime-fiction fans. If those readers give it a chance, however, they may wonder why the authors they usually read are so risk-averse. Set in the made-up port city of Paracun, on the Gulf of Mexico, the story starts in present time, with policeman Ramn El Macetn Cabrera assigned to the career- and life-endangering investigation of a journalists murder. Then the story leaps back in time to the 1970s and Vicente Rangel Gonzlezs search for a serial killer who preys on young schoolgirls. El Macetn and Rangel are good cops struggling against a culture of shocking corruption, dogged by uneducated colleagues, crooked politicians, and scoop-hungry tabloid journalists. This view is vivid enough, but its Solares prosealternately playful, poetic, and plainspokenthat propels the pages. Some fantastic elements of Latin American fiction, such as dreams and ghosts, are present, but they wont be dealbreakers for crime fans who dont like magical realism. Supporting characters offer testimony, usually enhancing the plot, but in one hilarious instance taking a left turn, never to return. As the plot paths converge, we see how the tragic past becomes the tragic present: As happens everywhere, the city grew up around its tombs. Rarely has gross miscarriage of justice been so satisfying.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)