A thrilling, sweltering noir from the undisputed Godfather of Mexican "Narco-Lit".
For Detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta, tormented by past heartbreak and dismayed by all-pervasive corruption, the murder of lawyer Bruno Canizales represents just another day at the office in Culiacan, Mexico's capital of narco-crime.
There is no shortage of suspects in a city where it's hard to tell the gangsters from the politicians. Canizales was the son of a former government minister and the lover of a drug lord's daughter, and he nurtured a penchant for cross-dressing and edgy sex. But why did the assassin use a silver bullet? And why, six days later, did he apparently strike again?
Mendieta's hunt for the killer takes him from mansions to low-life bars, from gumshoe reporters to glamourous transsexuals. Unearthing the truth can be as dangerous as any drug.
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 - Arturo Perez-Reverte
If you are fed up with formulaic noir novels and looking for something fresher, Elmer Mendoza's dazzling Silver Bullets 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
Casts a wide net over modern Mexican life and an array of well-drawn characters, some powerful, some weak, some depraved . . . Mendoza's creation is nothing like standard pulp fiction - Times Literary Supplement
A lmer Mendoza was born in CuliacA n, MA xico 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 JosA Fuentes Mares National Literary Prize for Janis Joplin's Lover, and the Tusquets Prize for Silver Bullets.