The Acid Test

When the mutilated body of Mayra Cabral de Melo, a well-known stripper, is found by the side of a dusty road, detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta has personal reasons for bringing the culprit to justice. Mayra had no shortage of ardent, deluded and downright dangerous admirers, and Lefty himself is haunted by one steamy night he spent in her generous company. So begins an investigation that will bring him ever closer to the murderous world of the narcos, who are waging a war of bloody attrition against the Mexican state.

The country is a powder keg, waiting for a spark, and Mendieta is about to enter the darkest days of his life. Corrupt politicians, failed boxers and unscrupulous arms dealers all lie in wait across the path to justice - none of which can prepare him for a brush with the F.B.I. when the father of the President of the United States is attacked on vacation. But for all these perils it is the weight of his own murky past that Lefty finds hardest to bear.

And as he scratches around for clues, faced with a gallery of suspects who all have a motive and that murderous glint in their eye, the reappearance of Samantha Valdes, now the boss of the Cartel del Pacifico, adds one more piece to an already impenetrable puzzle.

“One of the biggest names in Mexican literature . . . A true novelist . . . No one has captured the exciting and passionate nature of the Mexican vernacular like himThe literary representative of modern-day Mexico in its narco-incarnation . . . The most important thing that's happened in Mexican literature in the last thirty years - Sunday TelegraphIf you are fed up with formulaic noir novels and looking for something fresher, Elmer Mendoza . . . could be the answer - Sunday TimesPresents Mexico in a darkly surrealist light: corrupt politicos, a plague of narco-crime and only battered detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta on the side of the angels - Independent”

One of the biggest names in Mexican literature . . . A true novelist . . . No one has captured the exciting and passionate nature of the Mexican vernacular like him

The literary representative of modern-day Mexico in its narco-incarnation . . . The most important thing that's happened in Mexican literature in the last thirty years - Sunday Telegraph

If you are fed up with formulaic noir novels and looking for something fresher, Elmer Mendoza . . . could be the answer - Sunday Times

Presents Mexico in a darkly surrealist light: corrupt politicos, a plague of narco-crime and only battered detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta on the side of the angels - Independent

Elmer Mendoza was born in Culiacan, Mexico in 1949. He is a professor and author, widely regarded as the founder of 'narco-lit', which explores drug trafficking and corruption in Latin America. He won the Jose Fuentes Mares National Literary Prize for Janis Joplin's Lover, and the Tusquets Prize for Silver Bullets.

When the mutilated body of Mayra Cabral de Melo, a well-known stripper, is found by the side of a dusty road, detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta has personal reasons for bringing the culprit to justice. Mayra had no shortage of ardent, deluded and downright dangerous admirers, and Lefty himself is haunted by one steamy night he spent in her generous company. So begins an investigation that will bring him ever closer to the murderous world of the narcos , who are waging a war of bloody attrition against the Mexican state. The country is a powder keg, waiting for a spark, and Mendieta is about to enter the darkest days of his life. Corrupt politicians, failed boxers and unscrupulous arms dealers all lie in wait across the path to justice - none of which can prepare him for a brush with the F.B.I. when the father of the President of the United States is attacked on vacation. But for all these perils it is the weight of his own murky past that Lefty finds hardest to bear.And as he scratches around for clues, faced with a gallery of suspects who all have a motive and that murderous glint in their eye, the reappearance of Samantha Valdes, now the boss of the Cartel del Pacifico, adds one more piece to an already impenetrable puzzle.

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