The Dead Women of Juárez

June 11, 2012
Hawken’s debut novel ambitiously confronts a real-life scandal, the many, mostly unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juárez since the early 1990s, previously tackled by Roberto Bolaño’s sprawling 2666. The two heroes, down-and-out American boxer Kelly Courter and Mexican police detective Rafael Sevilla, dig into the drug-related violence in the Mexican border city, crimes that in recent years have overshadowed the so-called feminicidios. On occasion, Rafael presses Kelly, who just wants to eke out a humble existence in Ciudad Juárez, about his friend Estéban, a smalltime drug dealer. Worse trouble lies ahead because of the role of Paloma, Kelly’s girlfriend and Estéban’s sister, in the victim-advocacy group Mujeres Sin Voces. After a low-key opening section that sketches Ciudad Juárez’s bleak industrial landscape, the book roars into gear as a bluntly forceful hard-boiled thriller that also manages to address, movingly and respectfully, its troubling subject matter. Agent: Svetlana Pironko, Author Rights Agency.

August 1, 2012

Kelly Courter, a down-on-his-luck boxer with a heroin problem, has found refuge in Juarez, trying to get back in the ring. The Mexican town, synonymous in the minds of many with violent drug crime and murdered women, turns out to be the wrong place for the displaced Texan. When his girlfriend, Paloma, becomes the latest victim, Kelly is arrested, although readers know he is innocent. Curiously, narcotics detective Rafael Sevilla (who's been cultivating Kelly as a drug informant) believes Kelly to be innocent. Sevilla's own daughter is one of the hundreds of missing young women whose cases have never been solved. Something in Sevilla snaps, and he starts investigating Paloma's murder on the side. The consequences are dark. VERDICT Hawken doesn't pull any punches in his brutal, hard-boiled debut that reads spare, violent, and bleak. Sevilla's profound grief and his moral choice to fight on Kelly's behalf make for an emotionally draining read. Recommend for Eddie Muller (boxing) and George Pelecanos fans for gritty tone and indignation, and James Lee Burke's Hack Holland series for regional issues. [This title was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association New Blood Dagger--Ed.]

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