Set in Mexico City in the 70s, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s historical noir Velvet Was the Night – her seventh novel, released in 2021 – is tale of two very different people struggling for identity in a city wracked by political turmoil. In the wake of disrupted protests and violence on the streets, tensions in Mexico City are running high. When Maite, an unhappy secretary who spends her free time reading romantic comics and collecting records (and occasionally stealing little trinkets from her neighbours), agrees to feed her neighbour’s cat for a few days, little does she realise the peril she’ll soon be in, or what it will do to her. Dangerous men are looking for her neighbour, Leonora, and one of them – a Hawk named Elvis, who prefers music to violence – finds himself drawn to Maite even as he struggles to understand his role, and who he wants to be.
Set to a backdrop of historical events, people and organisations – the Corpus Christi Massacre, discontent with President Echeverria, the violent Hawks (or Los Halcones, essentially government-trained paramilitaries), and more – this captures a vivid, electric sense of place and time, in which trust is a rare commodity and uncertainty is all around. Against this Moreno-Garcia places a pair of characters who on the face of things couldn’t be more different: Maite the dreamer, hiding from her pain and the fear of ageing, and Elvis the enforcer, fighting for his place and the respect of his peers. Beneath the surface they’re surprisingly similar though, both unhappy with their lives, lonely and not sure how to fit in (not to mention both into great music). Caught up as they are in someone else’s drama, neither of them is really comfortable with what they’re getting involved in.
There’s real tension between the roles Maite and Elvis play in the ongoing events, but it’s tension from a distance, with nothing so simple as a chance meeting or an enemies-to-lovers trope. Moreno-Garcia keeps the two of them apart, exploring the realities of life in Mexico at the time – protests, activism, fear of the government, the effects of and attitudes towards music – through their eyes on opposite sides of events. It’s cleverly done, with the narrative focusing mostly on the search for Leonora and the dangerous information she may or may not have, as Maite gradually learns to embrace the chaos of her new life and what it could mean for her, while Elvis starts to consider the kind of life he might be able to have away from the violence and the danger.
Everything you’d expect from a Moreno-Garcia novel is present and correct – psychologically complex characters, a richly textured setting, and a plot which combines both to explore a moment in history that’s as bleak as it is fascinating. It’s more of a slow-burn noir rather than an action-packed thriller, and unless you’re particularly familiar with 70s Mexico you may find yourself pausing to look up names and events (which is fascinating in its own right), so don’t expect too much in the way of chapter cliffhangers or gunslinging action. Instead, if you’re interested in a small-stakes, character-driven story set in a city on the verge of boiling over (and with a great soundtrack – you can listen along here to songs mentioned in the book), then this should definitely be on your to-read list.
Review copy provided by the publisher
See also: all of the Silvia Moreno-Garcia reviews on Track of Words
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