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More than ten years ago, Matty Madrid had been involved with a guy named Mingo Minguez with whom she had a child. When their daughter, Esperanza, had an accident, Mingo was out of there. He's since been incarcerated at the Penitentiary of New Mexico. Matty doesn't know why she does it, but she visits him every few weeks. During one of those visits, Mingo asks for her help in finding the killer of a fellow inmate named Isaac "Gordo" Gonzales. Gordo had been lifting weights in the gym when he died. The death is suspicious because of the nature of the injury and the fact that there were no corrections officers in the area at the time, although the officials have labeled it an accident. It appears that there's an elaborate cover-up going on, but it's not apparent for what reason. Mingo is pretty sure who did it, a guy named Foster, who may have been Gordo's rival in love for one of the other inmates. But he can't understand why Warden Harley Jenks hasn't put the guy away. The plot thickens as the examiner who wrote up an honest death report showing that a murder occurred is killed, and the report, which Matty has obtained on the sly, disappears. Matty is a private investigator who has several situations added to her caseload in addition to the Gordo crime. She's not wild about taking on the case because it doesn't look like she'll get paid anything but does it anyway because Mingo's life has been threatened. The lawyer she asks to assist her with Gordo asks her to find her deadbeat third husband who owes her money, a comic named Herbie Koren. Koren's talent agent asks her to find a dog that was stolen by his ex-wife. Such is life for a big time investigator. In addition to the actual crime events, Grady builds a strong sense of the life of a single Hispanic woman with an overload of responsibilities. In addition to her professional life, Matty cares for her grandmother, who is delusional with Alzheimer's, and her daughter, who is basically catatonic. There's a nice sense of the Hispanic influences from Matty's own background as well as the community in which she lives. There was quite a bit of Spanish interspersed into the dialog. Although that added a lot of flavor to the narrative, I found it confusing because I didn't understand everything that was being said. At times it was also difficult to comprehend what was being said by the inmates in the prison, as Grady reproduced their street slang phonetically. However, the dialog was very realistic and seemed true to each speaker. There's a lot going on in this book, and Grady generally keeps events under control with a few exceptions. I got a little bit lost, as there was quite a parade of characters introduced throughout the book. There was a bit too much reliance on a device where Matty fortuitously ran into somebody who knew somebody that knew something; but on the whole, Grady did a credible job with plot, character and setting. Matty is a likeable character, no-nonsense and very down to earth. She has a tendency to deny her own needs, with her wasting her time visiting Mingo instead of building new relationships even though there are others who are clearly interested. The book had a little different twist than the typical PI novel in that Matty may have gotten a few of the events in motion but wasn't ultimately responsible for the resolution of most of the situations. In fact, she is off stage quite a bit of the time which is unusual for a lead character. However, I liked Matty and look forward to meeting her again.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, June 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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