VELVET WAS THE NIGHT tells the story of a daydreaming secretary who winds up putting herself in the middle of an investigation of a missing girl, who happens to be her neighbor. The story was very slow to develop and we spend a good chunk of time just going back and forth between Maite and Elvis with very little story development. It’s not until 82% into the book were we start getting somewhere with the storyline.

I am a big fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work and while I did like this book, it wasn’t my favorite. The writing felt very utilitarian and I wasn’t able to get into a groove with it so I kept having to kind of force myself to push through it? It might have just been me but I will definitely be recommending this book to people who enjoy crime/noir books.

I did love the fact that this book took place in Mexico City in the 1970s.

Velvet Was the Night works well as noir fiction.

Told in dual perspective, the story itself vacillates between Maite, a thirty-year-old secretary who has a penchant for fantasy and adventure, for a love comic called Secret Romance, and Elvis, who loves music and is a member of the Hawks, a crime syndicate that works against political activists and the Mexican government. They both find themselves looking for the missing Lenora, only at different ends. For Maite, locating her has to do with them being neighbors and the fact that she has been stuck watching her cat. For Elvis, it's about finding dangerous photos she supposedly had in her possession at one time and preventing them from being shared. Exposed. They end up circling each other as a result, their lonely hearts calling out, trying to survive in the new perilous situations in which they find themselves embroiled.

The setting, the plot, the 1970's Mexican political atmosphere--it's all squalid in a way that muddies the line between right and wrong, good and bad, and I like how the characters toted around serious flaws as well as the way emotional gravitas and loneliness set the tone.

Maite never believes she's good enough for anything or anyone, for instance. She's also relatively ignorant about the Dirty War until she's plunged into the center of it. Awareness explodes before her eyes the further she progresses in the plot, alerting her to the bald realities of her country.

Elvis is technically a criminal, but loathes violence and killing, finding solace in things like vinyl records, words of the day, and old movies. His major flaw is stuckness. He can't seem to escape the clutches of his current job and carve out his own life for himself.

Both protagonists are intriguing enough. I rooted for them to succeed, to escape from danger, even though I wasn't drawn in by them entirely. The setting and emotional gravity was what gave this book most of its pulse, in my opinion. It provided the dark, thick murkiness anything noir needs.

Though not my favorite of Moreno-Garcia's works, I appreciate and applaud her divergence into this new genre. It's further proof she can whittle a good story out of anything.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

*Review to be posted to blog on publication day: 8-17-2021

Loved this thriller. I haven’t read any of authors previous books but I have already started looking to get another! Kept me on edge of my seat until last page,

This was so interesting, and I learn something new about Mexico and their secret war.
It's a dual POV. We have a two lonely protagonist.

First is Maite, She just turned 30, she loves music, reading romance comics and she doesn't like her job or her family. And we have Elvis, also a music lover and part of Hawks, a political group against the Mexican government.

When Maite's neighbor disappears, she decides to find her, its not an easy task, Maite will attract danger and one of those dangers is the gang to which Elvis belongs; he will be in charge of watching her.

The author builds very real characters, both are lonely people, they seek to fit and connect with someone, you can feel their loneliness and their longings.
The story is slow but fluid, it is built little by little and that allows you to know a little more about the historical context and the danger that the protagonists run.

The story feels like an old movie. I love the written style, you can see the streets of Mexico City, savor the food or run for you life.

Review Dates: Goodreads, Amazon, Bookbub and B&W: Aug 17

Why I kept falling in love with the book covers of Silvia Moreno Garcia’s! Isn’t this one gorgeous? Mexican Gothic’s cover is still my favorite but this smoky, mysterious vibes of the cover and author’s name made me dive into this one by going blind!

First of all: this is not paranormal, gothic thrillers just like some of her previous work! This is political thriller-historical fiction- emotional lonely hearts of broken people story!

The story takes places in 70’s of Mexico, centered on high tension political area because the incidents enacted by PRI Mexican Political party! Elvis is member of Hawks : a group is unofficially works for government during the Dirty War as Maite is clerical worker who hates her job, loves reading romance lovers, listening to records, thirty, single.

Both of their paths cross as they try to find missing Leonara ! Their intentions to find her are totally different. Maite wants to find her because she’s her roommate, Elvis wants to find her because she is supposed to keep dangerous photos that shouldn’t be revealed! As you can imagine they have been dragged into very dangerous situation by looking for the girl.

Even though this action packed, intense political thriller, it’s also a book about two lonely hearts try to survive in the wild, dangerous jungle. Especially Maite’s evolving, changing, awakening to see the realities of her country, her self discovery were well developed.

I normally enjoyed the author’s paranormal thrillers more but she meticulously succeeded to form a good story and showed us she could perfectly write in different genres.

I loved both of the characters. The pacing was still intriguing. I never get bored till the end. That’s why I’m giving my whirlwind, exciting, powerful, fast pacing, four viva Mexico stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballantine/Del Rey for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

After reading this novel And take a few breaths. I was languorously and lasciviously living in this historical noir Silvia Moreno-Garcia has created and didn’t want it to end. It was a masterpiece that I couldn’t put down.

This work of fiction takes place in the 70s and we get two points of view. One point of view is from Elvis, a young man who is part of the Hawks, a group of members historically known in the Dirty War to unofficially work for the government. The other point of view is from Maite, a recent 30 year old, single, record lover, and romance novel aficionado.

I loved the dual perspectives. Without them, this novel wouldn’t have been the same. Seeing interior and exterior insights into the Dirty War made this novel. Crafting the character Maite as someone who wasn’t aware of government issues allowed the readers to learn as she learns. Moreno-Garcia did such a phenomenal job of creating and developing the characters that I could picture them walking down Mexico City.

Both Elvis and Maite are looking for Marie’s roommate, Leonora. Both had entirely different reasons for finding Leonora. Both put themselves in great danger trying to find her.

I fell in love with the character Maite. She believed she had numerous flaws but was oblivious that her only true flaw was thinking she wasn’t good enough. Throughout the entirety of this novel we get to see both of these characters develop fully.

This has been one of my favorite reads. I wasn’t able to put it down. I was entranced and held captivated by the story being told. I needed to know how it ended.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me an ARC.

I didn't have strong feelings about the book or the characters, but it kept me interested enough to keep reading. I thought the setting was really interesting and I got to learn about a time and place that I knew nothing about and the noir aspect was very fitting. Although I didn't feel strongly about the characters, I did root for them and wanted them to end up in good places. This is one of those books that has a really great ending that makes me remember the rest of the book fondly. Moreno-Garcia has a writing style that I enjoy and find to be addicting, and I'm excited to read more of her work.

A thriller unlike any I’ve ever read this year with an unforgettable main character. I absolutely loved this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page.

The book works really well as a mood piece. It pingpongs between the point of view of clerical worker Maite and gang muscle Elvis as they both get wrapped up in political unrest, events enacted by Mexico’s dominant PRI political party, and a missing young woman in supposed possession of damning photos. But really, the book is more about the lonely beating hearts of the two main characters. The set pieces and action sequences are sometimes secondary and muddled, never the slights or emotions felt, which are downright brazen in how they are expressed. Seriously, at one point early in the book, Maite “had wanted to tell the super that she was also a young person, that she too could turn up the music on her console, make it play really loud and invite friends over for drinks. But that would have been a lie.” Anyways, the excitement doesn’t really derive from any detectiving or whatever, but in discovering that the main characters both love Bobby Darin. It was a mopey, emo romp to read!