Flirting in Spanish: What Mexico taught me about love, living and forgiveness By Susan McKinney de Ortega Antaeus Books, Inc., 2011 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback Flirting in Spanish is not a “how-to-do-it” book. It is the true story of Susan McKinney, the 33-year-old daughter of former NBA coach Jack McKinney, who moved to Mexico to […]
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Lancandon Journal — 1969 By Dimitar Krustev Editorial Mazatlan, 2013 Note: While the cover says “Lancandón,” the legal page (and usual spelling) is Lacandón, used throughout this review. Like most travel journals, Dimitar Krustev’s Lacandon Journal — 1969 lacks literary “finish.” Plebian in style it often just plods along; but, nevertheless, parts of it are certainly pleasurable. […]
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Let the Water Hold Me Down By Michael Spurgeon Ad Lumen Press, American River College, 2013 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback Michael Spurgeon has written a remarkably fine novel. Let the Water Hold Me Down has the makings of a classic. It is written with skill and with grace, and the old verities that are at the […]
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The Devil’s Workshop By John Scherber San Miguel de Allende Books, 2011 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback I do not normally read fantasy fiction, but because The Devil’s Workshop is by John Scherber, a writer I admire, and because most of it is set in Mexico, I read it… and found it fascinating. The story begins as Mark […]
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Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan By Rosy Hugener with Carl Hugener Create Space, 2011 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback and Kindle This is a beautiful story, well conceived and well crafted and satisfying. Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan begins in 1906, in those tense years just preceding the Mexican Revolution. A woman in Merida is giving birth […]
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The Theft of the Virgin By John Scherber Outskirts Press, Inc., 2012 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback The Theft of the Virgin is the ninth book in John Scherber’s Murder in Mexico series. Others include titles like Twenty Centavos, The Fifth Codex, Vanishing Act, and Daddy’s Girl. He has also published the first two titles in his The Townshend Vampire Trilogy: And […]
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Playing for Pancho Villa By Sterling Bennett Libros Valor, Mazatlan, Mexico, 2013 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback The year was 1916. Young Frank Holloway “got mercury poisoning working in the Silver Creek Mine in Mogollón, New Mexico.” To recover his health, his doctor told him to get away and go have “an adventure.” And so… perhaps […]
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Infernal Drums A novel by Anthony Wright Moon Willow Press, 2011 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback The primary story of Infernal Drums, to this reviewer, is not very interesting. The protagonist, Jonah Everman, is not very interesting — a drifter who lacks both common sense and any commitment whatsoever to the society, however seedy it can be, in […]
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MEXICO SUNLIGHT AND SHADOWS – Short Stories & Essays by Mexico Writers Edited by Mikel Miller with Michael Hogan and Linton Robinson Egret Books (egretbooks.com) Available on Amazon in Paperback (here) and on Kindle (here) Over the past ten years I have published reviews of over a hundred books about, or set in, Mexico, and so I […]
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Something for Nothing By Robert Richter Publisher: Dark Oak Mystery Series, 2015 Paper: $14.95 US Kindle: $2.99 US Robert Richter’s new novel, Something for Nothing, is his third featuring Cotton Walters, ‘not your ordinary roving gringo’, who is called Algo by his Mexican buddies, shortened from the Spanish word for Cotton, algodón. Although Cotton prefers ‘a […]
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