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The Hector Belascoarán Shayne mysteries of Paco Ignacio Taibo II

 

An Easy Thing by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. New York. 1990. Viking Press. 0670824623. Translated from the Spanish by William I. Neuman. 230 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Neil Stuart. Jacket illustration by Mark Harrison. 

0670824623DESCRIPTION - AN EASY THING marks the English-language debut of Paco lgnacio Taibo II, Mexico's leading detective novelist and a writer world renowned for his atmospheric and highly innovative crime fiction. Set in the chaotic urban heart of Mexico City, a place where the ghosts of Old Mexico constantly eat away at all pretense of modernity, An Easy Thing is distinguished by the vulnerable human presence of its jaded detective hero, Hector Belascoarán Shayne. Already weary from coping with his mother's death and his lover's flight, Hector finds himself reluctantly involved in three perplexing cases: a murder at a capitalist- and corruption-riddled factory; disturbingly violent threats against the innocent teenage daughter of a former porn star; and finally, an attempt to find a rather extraordinary missing person-namely, Emiliano Zapata, archetypal (and, most think, long deceased) hero of the failed Mexican Revolution. Complicated characters; tight and witty dialogue; undercurrents of violence and sex; lots of action; and dazzling streaks of irony, dark comedy, and Latin fabulism combine to create a compelling, original mystery, a mystery that resonates with the bigger mysteries of Mexico's troubled history and of the dark side of human nature. This is mystery writing with a soul-and a funny, wise, warm, and entertaining soul it is, grounded in Paco Taibo's knowledge of modern Hispanic and world literature and history, and by his political and everyday human passions.


Some Clouds by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. New York. 1992. Viking Press. 067083825x. Translated from the Spanish by William I. Neuman. 163 pages. hardcover. JACKET DESIGN BY NEIL STUART. JACKET ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHRIS GALL. AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY BAUER. 

067083825xDESCRIPTION - In SOME CLOUDS, master crime writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II serves up another Belascoarán Shayne caper, set once again in the chaotic heart of Mexico City, involving two inexplicable murders and a mysterious fortune worth millions, Before his case is ended, Belascoarán Shayne must negotiate an intricate labyrinth of corruption and cover-up that bears an unsettling resemblance to Mexico City's real-life scandals. Hector Belascoardn Shayne had two exotic last names, a degree in engineering from the National University, and one eye less than most people. He was thirty-five years old, with an ex-wife, an ex-lover, one brother, one sister, a denim suit that made him look more like a social anthropologist than a detective, a 38 automatic in his office in Mexico City, a slight limp from an old bullet wound in his right leg, and a private investigator's license he'd gotten through a correspondence course. He had a marked predilection for soft drinks, lemon. scented aftershave, crab salad, the Bossa Nova, and certain Hemingway novels. His heroes were Justin Playfair, Michael Strogoff, John Reed, Buenaventura Durutti, Capablanca, and Zorro (though he knew he was never going to get very far with a cemetery-full of heroes like that).

 

 

No Happy Ending by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. New York. 1993. Mysterious Press. 0892965177. Translated from the Spanish by William I. Neuman. 175 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Jackie Merri Meyer. Jacket illustration by Jose Ortega. 

0892965177DESCRIPTION - For the past decade Paco Ignacio Taibo II has been the most popular and talked about author in Latin and South America, his mysteries have drawn comparisons to the work of such diverse writers as Dashiell Hammett and Gabriel Garcia Márquez, and his books have achieved bestselling status in both Eastern and Western Europe. Now Taibo's most acclaimed and bestselling novel is available in its first English edition. A private eye who shares his office with a plumber, an upholsterer, and a sewer engineer, Hector Belascoarán Shayne is a one-eyed anarchist, a man who knows intimately the teeming landscape of modern.day Mexico City-land of pressing poverty, absurdist street theater, and tragic class warfare. For Shayne, it is a world that can draw tears one moment and blood the next-as it does on the hot afternoon when he finds the dead Roman in his office. A threatening letter and a Polaroid snapshot of another corpse let Hector know that he has been targeted for intimidation, taking the identities of the two dead men, he finds out what they had in common: a connection to a dead daredevil named Zorak, whose sinister sideline was training a now disbanded paramilitary group used to put down political demonstrations.


 

Return To the Same City by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. New York. 1996. Mysterious Press. 0892965908. The Mexican Detective. Hector Belascoaran Shayne Rises From The Dead. Translated from the Spanish by Laura Dail. 178 pages. hardcover. JACKET DESIGN BY RACHEL McCLAIN JACKET ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOSE ORTEGA.

0892965908DESCRIPTION - ‘Hector Belascoarán Shayne, detective, was a stranger. A stranger in motion. He couldn't quite recognize himself he couldn't quite love himself And since he neither loved himself nor stopped loving himself he couldn't be too careful. He was absolutely sure that in this story, they were going to kill him.' The last Hector Belascoarán Shayne mystery from Paco Ignacio Taibo II ended with the one-eyed detective lying in the oily rain of Mexico City, his body perforated with bullets. Now the author of this hugely popular, highly political, endlessly inventive series of novels proves that no miracle is beyond his reach. Hector Belascoarán Shayne rises from the dead. He's a gun-carrying argonaut of Mexico City, city of strikes and pollution, ‘cemetery of dreams' He doesn't want to be alive, but he is, and when a woman tells him a sob story about her sister's death at the hands of a handsome rumba dancer in white patent leather shoes named Luke Estrella, Hector agrees to do something about him. In a Mexico City hotel the detective meets a battered, alcoholic gringo who's after the same man. On Acapulco Bay, nearly blinded by bikinied beauties, the detective shadows Estrella, who once owned porn shops in Cuba, cut off the hands of Che Guevara, and now is meeting with CIA operatives and a trafficker of stolen archeological treasures. Before Hector can decide whether he is pursuing Estrella or Estrella is pursuing him, he finds himself on a flight to Tijuana, for a confrontation with a killer . . . From the arms trade to the drug trade, from Nicaragua to the assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, Paco lgnacio Taibo II writes a heartrending, hilarious, and haunting story of corruptions venality, and violence, as told by Mexico's finest one-eyed detective. And when the final gunshots stop ringing in Hector's ears, Taibo's remarkable detective must attempt his most daring feat of all: learning to live with himself.
 

Frontera Dreams: A Hector Belascoaran Shayne Detective Novel by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. El Paso. 2002. Cinco Puntos Press. 093831758x. Translated from the Spanish by Bill Verner. 123 pages. paperback. Cover: Luis Jimenez-'Coscolina con Muerto (Flirt with Death)'. 

093831758xDESCRIPTION - The sweetheart of Hector Belascoaran Shayne's adolescence - the same one who's become a famous Mexican movie star - has disappeared into the magical reality of the U.S./Mexico border. Hector wanders la frontera looking for her. He falls in and out of love, he talks with the ghost of Pancho Villa, he asks lonely questions about the dirty business of narcotraficantes, and he listens closely to the story of the whores of Zacatecas. They, like his sweetheart, seem to have disappeared forever. Included are two brief essays - ‘Hector's Body' and ‘Hector's Shadow' - which discuss our beleaguered hero and his bullet-riddled body.
  

 

 

Taibo II Paco Ignacio

 

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - PACO IGNACIO TAIBO II is one of the most popular authors at work today. Born in Asturias, Spain, he has lived in Mexico since 1958. A historian, journalist, and writer of short stories, novels, and works of history, he is one of the founders of the International Association of Crime Writers. His work has been widely translated and published throughout the world; his most recent novel, LEONARDO'S BICYCLE, won the Latin American Dashiell Hammett Award for the best crime novel of the year. He lives in Mexico City with his wife and daughter.

 

 

If you have Netflix, you should check out Detective Belascoarán

 

Héctor Belascoarán leaves his corporate job and dull marriage to become an independent detective and tackle shocking criminal cases in 1970s Mexico City.

 

logo Belascoaran belascoaran3

 

 

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