This noir thriller set against the backdrop of a suppressive 1970s Mexican Government is a tense and enthralling read. Moreno-Garcia deftly creates a mystery with interesting characters, a unique (to me, anyway) premise, and a building tension that can wring out every last bit of suspense. We follow Maite and Elvis, two very different people with a common goal: they need to find Leonora. To Maite she is the neighbor that left her cat in Maite's care. To Elvis she is a student radical that the black ops group in which he works as an enforcer wants to get their hands on. As Maite and Leonora's former boyfriend Rubén look, Elvis starts to notice Maite, and becomes fascinated with her in his own right. Moreno-Garcia brings out the best of her characters, as per usual, and makes the backdrop of a right-wing Government targeting left wing activists function in a noir setting. I loved Maite for her beginning naivete which slowly turns to realization. I loved Elvis for his silent rebellion and his own journey to understanding the world around him. And I enjoyed the themes of clandestine activism and a suppressive Government.

All in all, VELVET WAS THE NIGHT was entertaining and gripping, and Moreno-Garcia has once again proven that she can write in just about any genre she wants.

Rich in descriptive detail, this was a book that was hard to put down. I felt transported to 70’s Mexico and sat back to watch this intense, suspenseful story. The characters are complex but the author brings out their loneliness. Well done.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book has many threads to pull at to unravel this Mexican noir mystery novel, and is fast-paced to the end.

4 stars

"Love, frail as gossamer, stitched together from a thousand songs and a thousand comic books, made of the dialogue spoken in films and the posters designed by ad agencies: love was what she lived for."

tw // blood, gore, murder, guns, drugs

rep // mexican MC

I'm not huge on books that are set in different era's but this one caught my attention so fast and held me strong. I loved the setting in the 70's in Mexico. The gritty film noir vibe of this book was just so good. I loved the feeling of walking the streets and the little shops and dangers that were faced by El Elvis, Ruben and Matie.

The plot follows Maite, a relatively "bland and boring" 30 something unmarried woman working as a secretary and overall bored with life. The only thing she looks forward to are her romance novels and the thrill that comes with watching other people's stories. However, she finds excitement when her beautiful neighbor, Leonora asks her to watch her cat while she's out of town and then disappears, everything changes.

Unknownst to her at the time, Leonora is holding film footage of proof that the Hawks - a street team unofficially sanctioned by the Mexican government to deal with students who protest against the government - are behind the riots and shot on students. This leads to her involvement, rather unhappily in the beginning to working with the students to try to find Leonora. This in turn gets her under surveillance in a spiderweb of people, from El Elvis of the Hawks, to Anya from the government. Watching all these plot lines come together all centering on the photos, Maite and Leonora was so fun to watch.

This noir set in Mexico City is the perfect blend of crime thriller, mystery, and nostalgic drama. The plot progression feels well-paced throughout, and the crescendo into the climax was exciting and engaging. There may have been a few predictable moments, but for me that felt right given the mystery-noir-thriller story.

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The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had really high hopes for this one. And it truly is very well written! But it was just a little too slow of a build up for me.

I really wanted to love this one. First, I'm a giant SMG fan. I've read everything she's written. I'm also a complete nerd for Latin American crime fiction. SMG labels this explicitly as a noir, which I feel like is part of that genre and is important to note. A lot of what I've read has been in Spanish, and written by dudes, so having one written by one of my favorite authors really excited me. And while this book does a great job of capturing the genre, and has two very well written POVs (Maite and Elvis), it just didn't quite capture my attention this time.

Velvet was the Night is a noir that takes place in Mexico City in the 1970s, but I was desperate for more detailed descriptions of the setting and the place that would make me feel like I was there. It does capture the specific time period well, and the story revolves around some very real crime and political repression in Mexico during The Dirty War. It is a great way to learn a little more about the historical significance of that time period, and the consequences it had for students and dissidents during that time. There are some fantastic descriptions of the music (rock music in particular) that were popular at the time, and I loved the accompanying playlist!

Noir is well known for being slow, and for drawing out this dark underbelly of a place and time, but unfortunately it didn't hold enough tension to want me to keep reading. While the focus is not characters, that was what I was most drawn in by -- as Maite, an office worker that gets involved in the mess when her neighbor (whose cat she is watching) goes missing, and Elvis, a member of a paramilitary group out of a need to belong but a desire to be something more, dig into the mystery. There is an air of romance, in that both characters are constantly mediating on it and imagining themselves as part of one, in escape from their solitary lives.

I want to encourage folks to give this one a try, especially if you haven't read any noir, and you want to explore more of the fantastic writing that SMG can create. (Also, if you haven't read it already, pick up Untamed Shore, which has a very Knives Out feel!) Overall, it was 3.5/5 for me, but it only makes me more excited for the next release to come. Thanks to NetGalley for the early review copy, all opinions are my own.

I feel the need to lead with the fact I have read, and LOVED, two of the author's previous books. There is no doubt that Moreno-Garcia is a wonderful author who takes risks by writing in different genres. In this case I really enjoyed how different and well developed the storylines for Gods of Jade and Shadow (one of my favorites of all time) and Mexican Gothic.

Unfortunately, noir just doesn't seem to be my genre. I commend the author for taking the risk and writing something in a genre that is different than her previous books. However, I just found it to be extremely boring and the characters even more boring and unlikeable. In all honesty - this review is mostly a review for those who do not like noir or slower mobster/gangster type books. I kept imagining the old detective movies in black and white with the jazzy music playing in the background and smoke everywhere.


I think I could have enjoyed this a lot more if it had been more face paced and if there were more plot twists/discoveries throughout the first half of the book.
If you love noir this may be a 5 star read for you

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing me with a free ebook ARC of this book.

I think I may have entered 'fan girl' territory for Silvia Moreno-Garcia! Each of her books feel a little different, a little unique from each other, but the writing and story telling flows through all of her books. I cannot start one of her books if anything is expected of me on that day because I cannot put these books down!

4 stars- I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others.

Velvet was the Night felt very different for Silvia. The closest it came to another story I have read would have to be The Beautiful Ones but you really can't compare them because the time-frame is different and Velvet is more of a noir where Beautiful Ones was a historical romance. Velvet was the night felt like reading a really old noir mystery, You know one of those cool black and white ones with the dame and the guy. There is cigarette smoke and everything is just so mysterious and cool in an effortless kind of way. I love movies like that so this was alot of fun to read because it reminded me of that. Leave it to Silvia to take something like this and make magic happen on the pages so easily.

Velvet Was the Night
Publish Date: Aug 17, 2021

Thank you so much to Netgalley & Del Rey for granting me an ARC of this book!

First, I think it is actually important to know what genre of novel this is. SMG is a story teller. She weaves background, intrigue and turmoil. This is a historical noir - which I was not sure what that meant so had to read up on it, but did realize that it is a genre that I do not read often. I went in thinking “I LOVED Mexican Gothic!” but be aware that this is totally different.

This book is still well written with dynamic characters that have edge to them - pretty much all of them have an edge.

I really enjoyed how music played a part in this book considering the historical references of how in “communist” Mexico, specific music was basically outlawed. It did add a fun dynamic and made sense with how the two main characters were “rebellious”. But otherwise, I feel like the main female character was a bit of a stretch. No spoilers, but I just didn’t feel that it made sense for her to be so involved. Also, there is a lot of violence - which I’m not opposed to in novels, but it was a lot. I get that it was important & how history happened, but it was pretty much half of the book.

I rated this book a 3.67 (2/3rds of a star) so closer to 4 - mainly because the genre was not my cup of tea, and I didn’t feel like the characters were people I understood, but I do like SMG’s style. The story was good & people that like historical fiction may enjoy it more.

This 1970s noir set in Mexico City is the perfect blend of crime thriller, mystery, and nostalgic drama. The plot progression feels well-paced throughout, and the crescendo into the climax was exciting and engaging. There may have been a few predictable moments, but for me that felt right given the mystery-noir-thriller story. Overall, an excellent book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that I thoroughly enjoyed throughout.

A more detailed review will be released closer to the publication date on armedwithabook.com . Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a copy of this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

As a lover of noir movies, I was very curious when I saw this labeled as the genre for Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel, Velvet Was the Night. I could definitely see the genre’s appearance throughout the book as we follow the enforcer, Elvis, who keeps trying to figure out what is right and wrong; and secretary, Maite, whose poor decisions draw her in as a victim of circumstance. Both are on a mission to find a missing woman who holds the key to taking down a powerful leader.

While reading this, I could imagine the smoky lighting, historical era, and almost hopeless tone. While it did well to provide the tone/mood I expected of the genre, there was still something missing to give it the “oomph” I wanted in a noir story. Another element missing for me was the romance aspect that I kept expecting in the novel. I wanted more development earlier on as the summary teased it into my head and I was let down a bit by that expectation.

There was a lot going on this novel but everything intertwined well and led to an ending that I enjoyed. This was a fun crime fiction story with extremely imperfect characters that I felt I should not have liked, yet did. I enjoy Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing style and stories, and while this was not my favorite of hers, it was worth the read.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

When Leonora goes missing her glamour outs life seems more dangerous to Maite and Elvis and as they search for her they realize the extent of her mysterious ways. Will Maite and Elvis find love on this dangerous journey or will their different worlds keep them apart? The history and music in this novel made the action even richer and it taps into a interesting “noir” style that is original to this author.

The author is extremely talented and I felt the atmosphere of being in that time and place. She captures the style of noir well; the pace and the back and forth between the points of view make this an incredibly slow build. I am a firm believer that books can be experienced differently based on what is going on in your life at the time personally and in the world. I’m sure I’m just not in the right place right now to read this one. It was just too slow for me. I needed a distraction, something that swept me up and doesn’t let me go. Maybe this one will grab you.

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a superb book with an engrossing plot and well drawn characters. Well worth the read!

This was a bit of a letdown for me. I want to say that I love this author. Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, The Return of the Sorceress, I devoured these stories. And what they show is that this author has a really good solid grasp of fiction. She knows what she's doing and does it well.

Most of the time.

This book was a slog. It was slow paced and by the halfway mark I was waiting for something to happen.

Set during 1970's Mexico City, political protests rock the city while those in power fear communism and the fist against speech and rights comes down hard, depending on whose side you're on.

Maite is a secretary and Elvis is a gang member, a Hawk. One of El Mago's boys. And with political intrigue a possibility, with riots and clashes, you'd think this book would be interesting.

It's not.

Maite is a klepto who steals from the people she pet sits for in her apartment. Never anything big, but it has to be something sentimental. Is she likeable? Not really but I was hoping she would make up for it by being interesting. Instead she's a girl with very little drive who loves listening to records in English because the covers don't sound the same and lives for her romance comics.

In essence, not a character you really want to follow.

Elvis is the most boring gang member I've ever read.

Both suffer from flat personalities and I didn't care what happened to them at all.

The book picks up around maybe the last 20% which was hard just to get to and then the ending is almost a slap with how lackluster it was. It too, was boring.

The author does a great job switching POVs. You can tell you're reading about two different characters with two different voices. It just doesn't matter because both are boring.

This one misses the mark for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This is a slow paced, introspective noir novel. There are two POVs - Maite, a lonely woman who keeps her head down during the current political unrest in Mexico City, and “Elvis”, the member of a squad whose sole purpose is to squash political activism. Maite becomes unwittingly entangled in this clash of ideologies when she agrees to watch her neighbor Leonora’s cat and Leonora disappears.

While I do not usually enjoy mysteries, I can’t say that I’ve read any noir novels before. It was definitely intriguing, albeit slow in parts, and I’d definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys the genre.

Review below is what will be shared to Instagram, where I share my reviews (BookishlyShan), in fact it’s already up. My review will stay up for good (i do not delete my posts) and I will reshare to my stories on day of publication! My review is also already up on Goodreads.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

After reading Mexican Gothic last year, I was super excited to be able read this book, and to get it early as an ARC was a real treat!

It definitely helps to read Garcia’s description of what a noir is before heading into it because it’s not like a typical historical fiction. This book was dark in all of the right ways, with complicated characters who aren’t the most morally correct but that is what makes this read exciting!

You can feel how lonely these characters are and how desperate they are to find their place in life. I kept routing for the two and was intrigued with each other their perspectives.

If you were a fan of Mexican Gothic, you’ll be a fan of this one!

VELVET WAS THE NIGHT by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a historical noir that follows meek secretary, Maite, and the eccentric criminal, Elvis, and their journeys as they find themselves on the search for the same person.

I have to start off by saying that I don’t generally find myself reading historical fiction, so despite my thoughts, if those are your jam, this could become your next favorite.

However, I found this book to keep a rather slow pace, and it didn’t help that I found Maite to be extremely unlikable. This book didn’t really pick up the pace until the last 20% and WOW, I found myself cruising through those pages and wanting to find out what was going to happen next.

I did really love Elvis’ storyline and found myself wanting to skip over Maite’s parts to get to his, and I will also say that the Epilogue did pique my interest enough to want to know more about what may happen next!

All in all, Silvia is great at setting the scene, but this one wasn’t my favorite.

Publication Date: August 17, 2021

*** special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Del Rey for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review ***

The prose was beautiful but the mystery so so. It is definitely noir and not a thriller-- the pace is slow and the stakes are low, but if you adjust your expectations it's a good read.