The Dead Women of Juárez - Tapa blanda

Sam Hawken's novel, The Dead Women of Juarez is the most stunning piece of work I've read in a long time. Based on the horrific true murders of those women, it is an instant classic.

The main character, Kelly, is one of the utterly compelling characters I've ever read. A beautiful compassionate gruelling novel, as ferocious to read as it is soul wrenching. Think The Wrestler meets Under the Volcano with the awful truth of the main events being true.

The depiction of the underbelly of Mexico is Dante's vision of hell, fuelled on drugs. A wondrous love affair between the washed up ex-boxer and the Mexican lady Paloma is epic and beautiful in its terrible foreboding.

This book will haunt you for a long long time and the dignity given to the mothers of the lost women is writing of a whole other dimension.

In the last twenty years, over 3000 women have disappeared from Ciudad Juárez, on the border between Mexico and the USA. Sam Hawken takes this story of mass murder and abduction and around it weaves the story of Kelly Courter, a washed up boxer from Texas, who doesn't mind playing the stooge in the ring, so long as he gets paid.

Courter is sucked into the underworld of organised crime that flourishes in the city, soon finding himself in way over his head. As his life spins out of control he becomes obsessed with seeking the truth about the female victims of Juárez. Sam Hawken is a classic American voice and Kelly Courter is a timeless American hero, fighting for freedom and justice in this fast-paced and brutal novel.