An Easy Thing

In a novel first published in 1977, half-Irish, half-Basque investigator Héctor Belascoarán Shayne gets presented with an intriguing premise: that Mexican Revolutionary icon Emiliano Zapata did not die at the Hacienda de San Juan in Chinamarca in 1919, but had instead cheated death when an emissary had gone instead. According to the tale Belascoarán is spun, Zapata, now in his 90s, remains very much alive, hiding out in a cave on the outskirts of Mexico City. Who could resist searching for Zapata? Surely not Belascoarán!

Belascoarán also investigates two more mysteries in An Easy Thing, the first novel in the five-book Belascoarán series: some odd bullying against the teenage daughter of a former porn star and the stabbing murder show more of an engineer in a factory in Santa Clara in the state of Mexico (the province with the same name as the country). The factory owner and his board openly admit that they'll be blaming the murder on the union, which will be going on strike any day; in a nod at the total corruption of the system, both the executives and Belascoarán have no doubt that the police will totally comply. However, the executives would like to know the real murderer, all the same.

Taibo is better known for his 2004 novel 68 about the 1968 student movement and the Tlatelolco massacre in which federal troops murdered hundreds of student protestors and arrested a thousand more 10 days before the 1968 Olympic Games were to begin in Mexico City. Taibo embues An Easy Thing with the same criticisms of the corrupt relationship between Mexico's politicians and oligarchs show less

A triple mystery exploring Mexico: Taibo's shabby PI searches for Zapata still hiding in a cave, struggles against corrupt execs after an engineer gets offed and the union is taking over, and fights blackmailers who have sex pix of the normal suspects (govt officials) and movie stars. As you might have guessed, it's funny as hell.

The very first Hector Belascoaran Shayne novel by the amazing Paco Ignacio Taibo II. As usual lots of social history are mixed into the three separate plot lines our fearless detective weaves thru in his debut. I especially appreciated the introduction of characters from the Mexican revolution that I was unfamiliar with (Ruben Jaramillo for instance). Taibo is a writer like no other, Shayne a unique creation, the novel a wonderful gift.

Available in English as "An Easy Thing." I give this four stars for readers who know about Mexican history and politics, especially the 1970's. For lay readers simply looking for a good detective story, I would drop it down to three stars. The protagonist is a left wing private eye who is working on three cases at the same time. This is a brisk read.

Mexican noir. I love it.