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SUGAR SKULL
by Denise Hamilton
Scribner, March 2000
295 pages
$25.00
ISBN: 0743245393


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Eve Diamond is a reporter for the LA Times, usually working the San Gabriel Valley beat. On one of her Saturdays at the "Metro" desk, she becomes involved in the search for a missing fifteen-year-old girl, Isabel Chevalier. Vincent Chevalier seems like an extremely laid-back parent, in terms of the kind of tabs he's kept on Isabel, but he is genuinely distraught on this particular Saturday. His worries prove valid when he and Eve find Isabel's body wrapped in a futon in the basement of a squat house.

In doing some investigating for this story, Eve finds out that there is a whole sub-culture of well-to-do adolescents who become groupies for street kids. She parleys this into an in-depth story about the symbiotic relationships that evolve, and what happens to the kids who get into this particular scene.

One of the boys connected both to Isabel and to the street kids is Paolo D. Langdon, whose father Carter Langdon III is running for mayor and whose mother happens to be Venus Dellaviglia Langdon, "an Italian-born, super-socialite with charm and brains". When Eve goes to interview Paolo, she walks into a political fundraiser. She does manage to interview Paolo, who has nice things to say about Isabel.

The next morning, Eve finds out that Venus has been murdered, her naked body found in a cabana by the pool. While all of this is exciting and intriguing, she does have other work to do. Her editor assigns her to do some local color on "Arena La Puente", owned by Felipe Aguilar. Felipe provides "the ranchera stars, the glitz, the cowboys, even the goddamned livestock" for Mexican emigres who are "starved for a little taste of home". He is looking for something positive about Mexicans because he is "sick of reading about these poor bastards dying in the desert as they try to sneak across."

In attempting to interview Felipe, Eve finds out that there has been a death in the family, and one of Felipe's sons, Silvio, will be giving her the tour and talking to her about the family business. Silvio tells her that his brother, Ruben, was killed by a drive-by shooter over the weekend. Eve had written about it just the day before her interview with Silvio.

In the course of pursuing all these stories, Eve comes to believe that they are interconnected, that relationships exist below the surface, that people aren't telling her everything. The police (or someone else) remove a black Speedo from the cabana where Venus's body was found, and deny that such an item ever existed at all. Paolo and another of Isabel's friends lead Eve to another street kid, Scout, who appears to be mentally ill but also to know vital facts about what happened to Isabel. Before Eve can build up enough trust with Scout to find out what Scout knows, Scout is killed.

Eve and Silvio are attracted to each other. Eve has misgivings about pursuing any kind of non-business relationship with Silvio while she is working on the story about "Arena La Puente" and/or the drive-by shooting of his brother. These misgivings turn into major doubts when a connection between Venus and Ruben comes to light. Then there are the questionable aspects of Ruben's fiance and her entanglement with Silvio.

By the end of Sugar Skull, we know who killed who and why. We know more about what the real life of a reporter is like. We know more about the street life of throw-away kids than we ever want our children to know. Those of us who are non-Hispanic learn a little more about a culture which is becoming more and more pervasive in many parts of the USA.

Hamilton writes a good mystery. Her ability to portray the many levels of society encountered in this story is masterful. Her characters, especially the ones central to the story, seem very real to this reader. While I knew some of the hidden connections before they were revealed, I did not figure out all the twists and turns of the plot. If The Jasmine Trade is as good a book as Sugar Skull, I can understand why it was nominated for so many awards. I recommend this books to people who want a little more real-life than cozy but a lot less noir than Robert Campbell's La-La Land series.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, March 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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