Día de los Muertos

Vincent Calhoun is sick with dengue fever. He is sick to his very soul, betraying his country, his oath as a DEA agent, and his "clients." Calhoun is an American drug agent working in Tijuana, indulging in the excesses and corruption of that Mexican border town. He supplements his income - and tries to to cover his losses at the dog track - by smuggling illegal aliens across the border into California. His partner of choice is a Mexican federal cop. His partner of necessity is a well-bred, young, violent British fixer. The pressure on Calhoun mounts as he's "hired" to mule a group of Chinese girls across the border; unknown to him the girls have ingested balloons of heroin. He reunites with an American girl who started his downward show more spiral in California, pledging to get her back across the border along with a Chilean family and a 500 lb. Mexican crime lord. Everything comes to a head on Mexico's Dia de los Muertes - the Day of the Dead.

In some all too obvious ways, this classic novel noir reminded me of Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil." A central character has no idea of the forces that are leading him. There is ambition, money, lust, and violence. But, unlike Charlton Heston's film character of Mike Vargas, there is no character with a moral center. Calhoun is more like a younger, handsome version of Welles' character, Hank Quinlan. Calhoun has opportunities to get his life straight, but his physical and moral sickness keep him spiraling down to a violent climax.

La Dia de los Muertes is a fast-moving book that rises above the level of pulp, full of fleshed-out colorful characters who populate a continuum of amorality. I enjoyed this book a lot, but felt like taking a shower after I finished it to wash away the sights, smells, and sounds of Tijuana and the denizens of this novel. show less

Oh my … I think Harrington is a talented writer who can craft a hard-boiled crime novel. This book focuses on Vincent Calhoun, a DEA agent working in Tijuana, Mexico, who has given in to gambling and corruption. The entire story takes place in about 30 hours, beginning on Nov 1 at 2:00 pm, and ending just short of midnight on the night of Nov 2. In that time frame Harrington manages to cram in several shootings, car chases through the desert, ambushes, drug trafficking, animal doping, loan sharking, kinky sex and even a grossly obese billionaire who is wheeled on a refrigerator dolly through back streets full of drunken revelers. Really? The characters might have been interesting, but as written they were about as flat as the desert show more landscape. With the exception of a young Guatemalan couple who make just a cameo appearance, I just didn’t care what happened to any of them. What really turned me off, though, was extensive gratuitous sex and violence. It seemed that every time Harrington wrote his character into a jam the way out was either through f**king or killing. He may have the talent to write crime novels, but he wasted it on this drivel. show less

Excellent story from an underappreciated author.